Savona (Sàn-na in the local dialect of Ligurian) is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea, at sea-level.

Savona used to be one of the chief seats of the Italian iron industry, having iron-works and foundries, shipbuilding, railway workshops, engineering shops, brass foundry.

[edit] History

Savona is the Roman Savo of the Ingauni, where, according to Livy, Mago stored his booty in the Second Punic War.

The place was outshone in importance in Roman times by the harbor at Vada Sabatia (Vado), from which a road diverged across the Apennines to Placentia. In 1191 the commune of Savona bought out the territorial claims of the feudal lords, the marchesi Del Carretto. Its whole history is that of a long struggle against Genoa. As early as the 12th century the Savonese built themselves a sufficient harbour, but in the 16th century the Genoese, fearing that Francis I of France intended to make it a great seat of Mediterranean trade, rendered it useless by sinking at its mouth vessels filled with large stones. In 1746 Savona was captured by the king of Sardinia, but it was restored to Genoa by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

[edit] Main sights

• Near the Rocca di San Giorgio, on the "Promontorio del Priamar", stands the fortress named Priamar, built after fall of Savona in Genoese hands (1528) by the Genoese in 1542, on the area of the old cathedral and old city and later used as a prison and military prison (Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini was imprisoned here).
• Near the Cathedral (built 1589 – 1604) is the Cappella Sistina, containing the tomb erected by the Della Rovere Pope Sixtus IV to honor his parents. The Cathedral has one of the most notworthy wooden choirs of XVI cent. European churches.
• Facing the cathedral is the unfinished Palazzo Della Rovere, built by Cardinal Giulio della Rovere (Pope Julius II) from the plans of Giuliano da Sangallo as a university.
• The old towers, survived after 1528 ruin (war with Genoa): the Campanassa (Commune tower where freedom of Savona was signed in 1191), towers Corsi and Riario, "Ghibelline Tower", and Torre della Quarda (also known as "a Torretta"), in Leone Pancaldo square.
• The Sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Misericordia.
• In neighbourhood of Savona remains a house documented as property of Domenico Colombo, father of Christopher Columbus, where they lived for many years (Christopher Columbus lived in Savona for much of his youth).
• The church of San Maria di Sastello has a large altarpiece by Vincenzo Foppa and Ludovico Brea painted in 1490.

Image:Fortress Savona01.jpg

[edit] External links

• ItalianVisits.com
• Genoa Airport
• Savona Web

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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