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Leghorn history The origins of present day Leghorn (in Italian Livorno) date back to the 15th century. A small port called Liburnia existed in Roman times, built from a natural cove, which was under the domination of Pisa for all of the Middle Ages. A 1017 document mentions the presence of a castle named Livorna.
In 1421 the small port, under the reign of Genoa, was sold to Florence, at that time undergoing major espansion and needing an efficient outlet at the sea. From this time on Leghorn was ruled by the Medici family who for more than three centuries transformed the small village into one of the most important ports of the Mediterranean. Leghorn (Livorno) was defined as an "ideal town" during the Italian Renaissance. Today, it reveals its history through the structure of its neighbourhoods, crossed by canals and surrounded by fortified town walls, through the tangle of its sterets, which embroider the town's Venice district, and through the Medici Port characteristically overlooked by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre.
Designed by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti at the end of the 16th century, Leghorn underwent a period of great town planning expansion at the end of the 17th century. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress, a new fortress, together with the town-walls and the system of navigable canals, was then built
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