Let’s dig in some of La Spezia history: just a short guide to have an idea of how the city was born and developed
Towards the middle of the twelfth century the village of La Spezia had become quite important, as witnessed by the first commercial documents of La Spezia history dating year 1160. However, the event that ushered La Spezia in the chronicles of history was the war waged by the City of Genoa against Nicola Fieschi. This guy belonged to one of the most powerful families of Genoa, but was forced to flee the city due to the bloody battles between the Guelfi and the Ghibellini that spread all over Italy. With the help of his uncle, Pope Innocent IV, Fieschi took refuge in La Spezia, where he began to build the San Giorgio castle with the intention of creating a strong Guelph Signoria, whose extension included many territories of the Eastern Riviera. Genoa could not tolerate such a dangerous threat to its own borders and, inevitably, made war against the Fieschi. The war ended in the year 1276 with the victory of Genoa; since then until the year 1797, La Spezia and all its Gulf was under the rule of the powerful Maritime Republic.
La Spezia immediately acquired a stronger leading role than the other centers of the Gulf thanks to its flourishing trade in salt. The city was surrounded by walls and the castle built by Nicolò Fieschi was, over the centuries, expanded and upgraded.
Fearing that the Gulf of La Spezia might fall into enemy hands, from the mid-sixteenth century the Republic of Genoa began a defensive program that involved the construction of massive fortifications in the most strategic Gulf. Even today, those coming into the city from the sea, can see the Torre Scola “School Tower” at the eastern end of the island Palmaria, the forts of “Santa Maria”, “Varignano” and “Pezzino” along the west coast of the Gulf .
As evidence of the strategic importance acquired, in 1576 Spezia became the seat of captaincy, which was one of the eight “main offices” of the Republic of Genoa. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the city walls were extended: today, in Via Prione at the corner with Via Cavallotti, you can see a part of these walls. Genoa, however, never gave La Spezia the chance to expand its sales and the city economic life dried up: the surface of the city remained the same for many centuries, within the rectangle area of 250×300 sm a population of 2.000- 2500 inhabitants remained the same for a long time.
In 1797 the Republic of Genoa was conquered by Napoleon. With the arrival of the French, a new chapter opened in the history of the city: Napoleon decided to build a large naval arsenal on the western shore of the Gulf. The French projects was carried out only on paper because the rapid fall of Napoleon stopped the realization of the works.
In 1815 Liguria passed under the government of the Kingdom of Sardinia, but a real urban revolution of La Spezia only happened with the Unification of the Italian Kingdom, in 1861. The at the time Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, Camillo Cavour, strongly wanted to equip the new state with a strong and modern fleet, and chose La Spezia as a pivotal center for the project. Works on the construction of the arsenal began in 1862 and ended in 1869. It was a huge work: the old city was partially destroyed in order to adapt the spaces of the new facility; entire new neighborhoods were built, some of which intended to accommodate the more than 8.000 workers employed in the arsenal; new roads were opened, the railway line and new industrial plants around the city were built: the 5000 inhabitants living in La Spezia in 1861 became more than 100.000 in the early years of the twentieth century.
During World War II, La Spezia was a military strategic objective of primary importance, and the city was massively bombed. This is the reason why today, walking in the streets of the city center, there is a frequent alternation between ancient and modern buildings.
Copy by Roberto Palumbo
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