SAVONA | LIGURIA REGION

Savona is a seaport in the Ligurian Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. It used to be one of the chief seats of the Italian iron industry, with iron-works and foundries, shipbuilding, railway workshops, engineering shops, brass foundry.

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.

WHAT TO SEE IN SAVONA

• On the Rocca di San Giorgio stands the fortress named Priamar ("rock on the sea") built by the Genoese in 1542, on the area of the old cathedral 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, and
• Facing the cathedral is the Palazzo Della Rovere built by Cardinal Giulio della Rovere (Pope Julius II) from the plans of Giuliano da Sangallo as a university.