Livorno port
| Livorno port | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Data | |||
| UN / LOCODE | IT LIV | ||
| operator | Autorità Portuale di Livorno | ||
| opening | 15th century | ||
| Port type | Freight and passenger port | ||
| Total area of the port | 1.6 km² | ||
| Piers / quays | 29 | ||
| Passengers | 2,475,906 (2016) | ||
| Throughput | 32.8 million t (2016) | ||
| Container (TEU) | 800,475 TEU (2016) | ||
| website | www.porto.livorno.it | ||
| Geographic information | |||
| place | Livorno | ||
| region | Tuscany | ||
| Country | Italy | ||
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| Coordinates | 43 ° 33 '44 " N , 10 ° 17' 42" E | ||
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The port of Livorno (ital. Porto di Livorno ) is an Italian seaport in Livorno in Tuscany .
The port on the west coast of Italy was a small fishing port and military outpost of the important, former seaport of the Republic of Pisa until the 15th century . After the Portus Pisanus , which had existed since ancient times, silted up , the port and the city of Livorno were expanded and fortified in the 16th century. The free port and a special legal status of the city gave Livorno economic prosperity and a unique social fabric for a long time. Even today the port is one of the most important in Italy. Its landmark is the 54 meter high watchtower Torre del Marzocco from the 15th century.
Infrastructure
The port will be divided into an old and a new part. The old port in the south was largely built in its present form in the 16th century. It consists of the three port basins Darsena Vecchia , Darsena Nuova and Porto Mediceo as well as the quays of Cappellini and Firenze . The former is now reserved for fishing boats and boats owned by security authorities. The Darsena Nuova used to be a shipyard and has been converted into a residential area for some time (Porta a Mare) . The Porto Mediceo and partly still serves as a trading and ferry port with connections to Corsica , Sardinia , some islands of the Tuscan Archipelago such as Capraia . The new part in the north, called Porto Industriale , is the commercial port, especially for mineral oil, containers and cars, as well as the landing point for large cruise ships . The trading port, built from 1910 onwards, is to be expanded in the coming years: the new "Europe platform" in the northwest would, among other things, alleviate the longstanding problem of the relatively shallow water depth (up to 13 meters) in the port basin.
The port has its own rail connection. The Strada di grande comunicazione Firenze-Pisa-Livorno ends (or starts) in the commercial port and connects it with the Interporto Toscano Amerigo Vespucci freight center in the northeast of Livorno.
North of the Porto Industriale is Camp Darby , a military depot of the US armed forces . It is connected by a navigable canal and a railway line to the new trading port, which ships of the US military occasionally call at for logistical reasons. South of the old port is the Academy of the Italian Navy , which also uses the port for military purposes if necessary.
history
The port of Livorno was originally located south of the far more important port of the neighboring city of Pisa . In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the latter was closer to the sea than it is today, as deposits moved the mouth of the Arno River further and further west over time. In the estuary, which was widely ramified at the time, there was the so-called Sinus Pisanus , a bay with the port of Portus Pisanus , which was connected to the inland port of Pisa via several arms and canals . With the gradual silting of the Porto Pisano , the formerly small fishing port of Livorno succeeded the now defunct port of Pisa from the 15th century.
The Portus Pisanus was probably built by the Etruscans as a trading and military port. It was also used as such by the Romans and then in the Middle Ages in particular by the Maritime Republic of Pisa . The latter fortified it in the 12th century because of ongoing wars with the Maritime Republic of Genoa . Several defense towers were built , including two at the port entrance, which secured them with a heavy port chain , among other things . Because the Pisans did not keep the peace conditions after the lost naval battle at Meloria , the port was largely destroyed or made unusable by the Genoese in 1289 and the port chain was brought to Genoa as a trophy, where individual parts were hung in churches or on public buildings for centuries. The chain parts were only returned in 1861 in the course of the unification of Italy and are now on the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa.
The Pisans rebuilt and expanded their port around 1300, but could no longer prevent it from becoming increasingly silted up. From around 1340, the small port of Livorno was gradually used, which had also served as a military outpost to defend Porto Pisano . Livorno's previous names Liburna, Liorna and Livorna are likely derived from the Roman warship type Liburna . The place was also devastated in the aforementioned conflict with Genoa, but it was Genoese who added a small canal port to the Pamiglione port of Livorno at the beginning of the 15th century (Porticciolo dei Genovesi) . After Livorno came to the Republic of Florence in 1421 , the Medici rulers there began to expand the port of Livorno and make it the center of their maritime activities. The watchtower and defense tower Torre del Marzocco , which is still preserved today, dates from this first Florentine period .
Between 1518 and 1534, the Darsena Vecchia harbor and the Fortezza Vecchia fortress were built on the orders of the Cardinal and later Pope Giulio de 'Medici and plans by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger . Under the Grand Dukes Cosimo I and Francesco I , Livorno was created as an "ideal city" from 1571 and the port was expanded considerably. Well-known architects of the time such as Bernardo Buontalenti and Alessandro Pieroni were commissioned with the planning . The result was a city with streets oriented at right angles, surrounded by a hexagonal rampart and moats that formed an architectural unit with the partly fortress-like port facilities. The swamps in the surrounding area were drained and a navigable canal was built between Livorno and Pisa. The Medici entrusted the defense of the coast from pirate attacks by the corsairs to the Order of St. Stephen , whose fleet was stationed in Livorno.
Between 1590 and 1603 the so-called “Livorninian Laws” were enacted to revitalize Livorno. They provided immunity, privileges and freedoms for traders of all origins, but above all guaranteed freedom of belief . Through this edict of tolerance , Livorno became a cosmopolitan and multi-religious city and its port became an important trading center through the settlement of various population groups. In 1675 Livorno was declared a free port and the city experienced an economic boom that lasted around 200 years. So Livorno became the most important trading post of the English on the Mediterranean; they called the city Leghorn . Several times the Grand Duchy of Tuscany concluded treaties with warring states that guaranteed the neutrality of the port of Livorno.
From 1830, after the French occupied Algiers , the North African trade collapsed. After the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy , Livorno lost the free port in 1865, which caused a further drastic reduction in trade. The construction of the Pisa – Rome railway via Collesalvetti also had a negative effect , because Livorno and the port were not located directly on this main traffic axis. This development was compensated by the Florence – Pisa – Livorno railway line (1848), the founding of the Orlando shipyard (1865) and the further industrialization of Livorno.
After the port of Livorno had remained essentially unchanged for two centuries, the expansion of the port began around 1850, particularly in the north, and the modernization of the old port in the south. In front of the old Porto Mediceo , a new, slightly curved pier was built , the Diga curvilinea breakwater , which still exists today . The expansion in the north began in July 1910, but had to be interrupted due to the war. In 1919 the expansion plans were revised: the simple extension of the quays along the coast was abandoned in favor of the port basin between the canal to Pisa and the growing industrial area in the north of Livorno. The work continued into the 1930s. They were largely destroyed in the course of World War II : US air forces bombed the city massively; the serious damage caused by these air raids was never completely repaired.
In the 1960s, the positive post-war development was slowed down by the relatively shallow depth of the port basins of a maximum of 12 meters. This led to the construction of the new Porto Industriale in the north. In 1975 a new dry dock , 350 meters long and 56 meters wide, was inaugurated in the south . In 1995 a new port authority took over the administration and operation of the port, which was gradually expanded. In addition to traditional trade and ferry traffic, the cruise business has grown in importance in recent years .
Incidents
- On April 10, 1991, a very serious accident occurred at night in thick fog in front of the port of Livorno : the Moby Prince ferry collided with the Agip Abruzzo tanker , killing 140 people on the ferry.
- On March 29, 2018, an ethylene tank exploded in the port of Livorno . Two people were killed and a third was seriously injured.
Web links
- Website of the port operator (Italian / English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c www.porto.livorno.it Allegato Statistico 2016 (Italian). Accessed November 30, 2017.
- ↑ https://safety4sea.com/two-killed-after-tank-explosion-at-port-of-livorno/