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Livorno (Italian: [liˈvorno] ⓘ) is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western coast of the region of Tuscany in central Italy. The capital of the Province of Livorno, with a population of 152,451, it is the 25th-largest city in Italy. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronounced leh-GORN, LEG-horn or LEG-ərn).
During the Renaissance, Livorno was designed as an "ideal town". Developing considerably from the second half of the 16th century by the will of the House of Medici, Livorno was an important free port. Its intense commercial activity was largely dominated by foreign traders. Also the seat of consulates and shipping companies, it became the main port-city of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The high status of a multiethnic and multicultural Livorno lasted until the second half of the nineteenth century, when it was surpassed by other cities. Evidence of that prosperous time can be seen in the many churches, villas, and palaces of the city.
Livorno is considered to be the most modern among all the Tuscan cities, and is the third most-populous of the region, after Florence and Prato.
The origins of Livorno are controversial, although the place was inhabited since the Neolithic Age. This is documented by the worked bones, and pieces of copper and ceramic found on the Livorno Hills in a cave between Ardenza and Montenero. The Etruscan settlement was called Labro.
The construction of the Via Aurelia coincided with the occupation of the region by the Romans. They are also known for their toponyms and the ruins of towers. The natural cove called Liburna is a reference to the type of ship, the liburna, adopted by Roman navy from the Liburnians. Other ancient toponyms include Salviano (Salvius) and Antignano (Ante ignem), which was the place situated before Ardenza (Ardentia), where beacons directed the ships to Porto Pisano. Cicero mentioned Liburna in a letter to his brother, in which he called it Labrone.
Livorna is mentioned for the first time in 1017 as a small coastal village, a port and the remains of a Roman tower under the rule of Lucca. In 1077, a tower was built by Matilda of Tuscany. The Republic of Pisa owned Livorna from 1103 and built a quadrangular fort called Quadratura dei Pisani ("Quarter of the Pisans") to defend the port. Porto Pisano was destroyed after the crushing defeat of the Pisan fleet in the Battle of Meloria in 1284.
In 1399, Pisa sold Livorna to the Visconti of Milan; in 1405 it was sold to the Republic of Genoa; and on 28 August 1421 it was bought by the Republic of Florence. The name "Leghorn" was derived from the Genoese name Ligorna. The alternative name Livorno was first used in the fourteenth century and prevailed by the eighteenth.
Between 1427 and 1429, a census counted 118 families in Livorno, including 423 persons. Monks, Jews, military personnel, and the homeless were not included in the census. The only remainder of medieval Livorno is a fragment of two towers and a wall, located inside the Fortezza Vecchia.
After the arrival of the Medici, the ruling dynasty of Florence, some modifications were made in the city. Between 1518 and 1534 the Fortezza Vecchia was constructed, and the voluntary resettlement of the population to Livorno was stimulated. Livorno still remained a rather insignificant coastal fortress. By 1551, the population had grown to 1562 residents.
Seat of the crusading and corsairing Order of Saint Stephen after 1561, distinctive for its aggressive approach towards the Muslim world, Livorno became a major Mediterranean slave trade hub in the early modern period, rivalling Malta's. Its share of slave population may have been over a 25% of the population.
During the Italian Renaissance, when the settlement was ruled by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany of the House of Medici, Livorno was designed as an "Ideal town". In 1577 the architect Bernardo Buontalenti drew up the first plan. The new fortified town had a pentagonal design, for which it is called Pentagono del Buontalenti, incorporating the original settlement. The Porto Mediceo was overlooked and defended by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre.
In the late 1580s, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, declared Livorno a free port (porto franco), which meant that the goods traded here were duty-free within the area of the town's control.
In 1593, the Duke's administration established the Leggi Livornine to regulate trade. These laws protected merchant activities from crime and racketeering, and instituted laws regarding international trade. The laws established a well-regulated market and were in force until 1603. Also expanding Christian tolerance, the laws offered the right of public freedom of religion and amnesty to people having to gain penance from clergy in order to conduct civil business. The Grand Duke attracted numerous Turks, Persians, Moors, Greeks, and Armenians, along with Jewish immigrants. Sephardic Jews began to immigrate to Livorno in the late sixteenth century, following the Alhambra Decree and expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal. Livorno extended rights and privileges to them, and they contributed greatly to the mercantile wealth and scholarship in the city.
Livorno became an enlightened European city and one of the most important ports of the entire Mediterranean Basin. Many European foreigners moved to Livorno. These included Christian Protestant reformers who supported such leaders as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. French, Dutch, and English arrived, along with Orthodox Greeks. Meanwhile, Jews continued to trade under their previous treaties with the Grand Duke. On 19 March 1606, Ferdinando I de' Medici elevated Livorno to the rank of city; the ceremony was held in the Fortezza Vecchia Chapel of Francis of Assisi.
The Counter-Reformation increased tensions among Christians; dissidents to the Papacy were targeted by various Catholic absolute rulers. Livorno's tolerance declined during the European wars of religion. But, in the preceding period, the merchants of Livorno had developed a series of trading networks with Protestant Europe, and the Dutch, British, and Germans worked to retain these. In 1653 a naval battle, the Battle of Leghorn, was fought near Livorno during the First Anglo-Dutch War.
At the end of the 17th century, Livorno underwent a period of great urban planning and expansion. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress, a new fortress was built, together with the town walls and the system of navigable canals through neighbourhoods. After the port of Pisa had silted up in the 13th century, its distance from the sea increased and it lost its dominance in trade. Livorno took over as the main port in Tuscany. By 1745 Livorno's population had risen to 32,534.
The more successful of the European powers re-established trading houses in the region, especially the British with the Levant Company. In turn, the trading networks grew, and with those, Britain's cultural contact with Tuscany. An increasing number of British writers, artists, philosophers, and travellers visited the area and developed the unique historical ties between the two communities. The British referred to the city in English as "Leghorn", derived from the Genoese term. Through the centuries, the city's trade fortunes fell and rose according to the success or failure of the Great Powers. The British and their Protestant allies were important to its trade.
During the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars of the late eighteenth century, Napoleon's troops occupied Livorno along with the rest of Tuscany. Under the Continental System, the French prohibited trade with Britain, and the economy of Livorno suffered greatly. The French had altogether taken over Tuscany by 1808, incorporating it into the Napoleonic empire. After the Congress of Vienna, Austrian rule replaced the French.
In 1861, Italy succeeded in its wars of unification. At that time the city counted 96,471 inhabitants. Livorno and Tuscany became part of the new Kingdom of Italy and, as part of the Kingdom, the town lost its status as a free port. The city's commercial importance declined.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Livorno had numerous public parks housing important museums such as the Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Museo di storia naturale del Mediterraneo, and cultural institutions as the Biblioteca Labronica F.D. Guerrazzi and others in Neoclassical style as Cisternone, Teatro Goldoni and Liberty style as Palazzo Corallo, Mercato delle Vettovaglie, Stabilimento termale Acque della Salute, the Scuole elementari Benci all the last on project by Angiolo Badaloni.
In the early 19th century, the American Elizabeth Ann Seton converted from Protestantism to Catholicism while visiting Italian friends in Livorno. She later was canonized as the first American-born saint.
During the 1930s, numerous villas were built on the avenue along the sea in Liberty style based on designs by Cioni. These added to the architectural richness of the city.
Livorno suffered extensive damage during World War II. Many historic sites and buildings were destroyed by bombs of the Allies preceding their invasion of Italy, including the cathedral and Synagogue of Livorno.
Since the late 20th century, Livorno's residents have become well known for their left-wing politics. The Italian Communist Party was founded in Livorno in 1921.
Livorno has a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa). Summers have warm days with the heat lingering on throughout the night, hence going above the subtropical threshold in spite of its relatively high latitude. Winters are mild for the latitude due to the moderating influence from the Mediterranean Sea. Precipitation is in a wet winter/dry summer pattern as with all climates fitting the Mediterranean definition.
As of 2026, the population is 152,451, of which 48.4% are male, and 51.6% are female. Minors make up 13.4% of the population, and seniors make up 28.1%.
As of 2025, immigrants make up 10.7% of the population. The 5 largest foreign countries of birth are Albania, Romania, Peru, Ukraine, and Senegal.
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany issued in 1591 a decree encouraging Armenians to settle in Livorno to increase its trade with the Ottoman Empire and western Asia. By the beginning of the 17th century, Armenians operated 120 shops in town. In 1701 the Armenian community, who were members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, were authorized to build their own church, which they dedicated to Gregory the Illuminator. The project was by Giovanni Battista Foggini and the church was completed a few years later but did not open for worship until 1714. The church had a Latin cross plan and a dome at the intersection of the transept and nave. Destroyed during World War II, it was partly restored in 2008 but is not open to worship.
The first Greeks who settled in Livorno early in the 16th century were former mercenaries in the fleet of Cosimo de' Medici and their descendants. This community grew and became significant in the 18th and 19th centuries when Livorno became one of the principal hubs of the Mediterranean trade. Most of the new Greek immigrants came from western Greece, Chios, Epirus and Cappadocia.
Based on its status since the late 16th century as a free port (port franc) and the warehouses constructed for long-term storage of goods and grains from the Levant, until the late 19th century Livorno enjoyed a strong strategic position related to Greek mercantile interests in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Atlantic. The conflicts between Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, with associated port embargoes, piracy, and confiscation of cargoes, played out to the advantage of those Greek merchants willing to accept risk. By the 1820s, Greek entrepreneurs gradually replaced the Protestant British, Dutch, French and other merchants who left the city.
The Greeks concentrated on the grain market, banking and ship-brokering. Cargoes of wheat from the Black Sea were received at Livorno, before being re-shipped to England. Returning ships carried textiles and other industrial goods, which Greek merchants shipped to Alexandria and other destinations in the Ottoman Empire. Chians controlled much of the trade. In 1839 Livorno had ten major commercial houses, led primarily by ethnic Greeks and Jewish Italians.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Livorno”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.