Fortezza Vecchia (Old Fort), Livorno (must see)

The Old Fort stands at the entrance to Livorno’s harbor and represents the city’s earliest phase as a strategic port. Long before Livorno was conceived as a planned Medici city, this site already controlled access to the coast and shipping routes. Over several centuries, it evolved from a medieval stronghold into a Renaissance fortress.

The fortress assumed its present form beginning in 1519, when a new defensive complex was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, and designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, one of the leading military architects of the Renaissance. Completed in 1534, the fort integrated earlier structures into a modern artillery-resistant design. Its layout is defined by three major bastions, Ampolletta on the landward side, Canaviglia facing the port, and Capitana to the northeast.

Beneath this Medici construction lie much older elements. The oldest surviving part in the Old Fort is the Keep of Countess Matilda, which is also the oldest surviving structure in Livorno. The keep is traditionally linked to Matilda of Canossa and dated to the early 11th century. In 1377, the Republic of Pisa incorporated the tower into a larger fortress known as the Quadrature of the Pisans, establishing the site’s long-standing defensive role. Within the Medici fortress stands the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, built in 1530, where in 1606 the ceremony officially proclaiming Livorno a city took place.