LEGHORN, city of Tuscany, Italy (Ital. Livorno, Fr. Livourne), chief town of the province of the same name, which consists of the commune of Leghorn and the islands of Elba and Gorgona. The town is the seat of a bishopric and of a large naval academy—the only one in Italy—and the third largest commer cial port in the kingdom, situated on the west coast, 12 m. south west of Pisa by rail, ro ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1921) 105,722 (town), 114,809 (commune). It is built along the seashore upon a healthy and fertile tract of land, an oasis in a zone of Maremma. Behind is a range of hills, the most conspicuous of which, the Monte Nero, is crowned by a frequented pilgrimage church and also by villas and hotels, to which a funicular railway runs. The town itself is almost entirely modern (an extension of the older pentagonal town, entirely surrounded by canals). The Fortezza Vecchia (1521-34), guarding the harbour, is picturesque. Incor porated in it is a massive round tower, attributed to Matilda of Tuscany (q.v.), but by others thought to be of the 9th or loth century. The Fortezza Nuova (1590) on the east side of the old town was erected under Ferdinand I., whose fine bronze statue, with four barbarian slaves round the pedestal, stands near the old harbour. The lofty Torre del Marzocco, erected in 1421 by the Florentines, is fine. The facade of the cathedral was designed by Inigo Jones. The old Protestant cemetery contains the tombs of Tobias Smollett (d. 1771) and Francis Homer (d. 1817), and a large number of other British graves, the trading community having formerly been of considerable importance : but the "fac tory" was closed in 1825. At the Villa Valsovano Shelley wrote the greater part of the Cenci in 1819. There is also a large syna gogue founded in 1581. The exchange, the chamber of commerce and the clearing-house (one of the oldest in the world, dating from 1764) are united under one roof in the Palazzo del Commer cio, opened in 1907. Many streets have been widened, and the road along the shore has been transformed into a shady promenade. Leghorn is the principal sea-bathing resort in this part of Italy, the season lasting from the end of June to the end of August. A spa for the use of the saline waters known as Acque della Salute has been constructed. Leghorn is on the main line from Pisa to Rome ; a branch line runs to Colle Salvetti. The harbour is protected by a breakwater nearly m. long. The imports con sist principally of machinery, coal, grain, dried fish, tobacco, Wool and hides, and the exports of hemp, hides, olive oil, soap, coral, candied fruit, wine, straw hats, boracic acid, mercury and marble and alabaster. In 1926, 3,184 vessels of 2,824,548 tons entered the port, and disembarked 7,049 passengers and 1,479,874 tons of merchandise ; the tonnage of those clearing it was prac tically identical, but only 3,462 passengers and 382,015 tons of merchandise were embarked. The older shipyards have been ex tended, and shipbuilding is carried on, especially by the Orlando yard which builds large ships for the Italian navy, while new indus tries—namely, glass-making and copper and brass-founding, elec tric power works, a cement factory, soap works, porcelain fac tories, flour-mills, oil-mills, a cotton yarn spinning factory, electric plant works, a ship-breaking yard, a motorboat yard, etc. have
been established. Other important firms, Tuscan wine-growers, oil-growers, timber traders, colour manufacturers, etc., have head offices and stores at Leghorn, with a view to export. Coral is also worked here.
The earliest mention of Leghorn occurs in a document of 891, relating to the first church here; in 1017 it is called a castle. In the 13th century the Pisans tried to attract a population to the spot and built the lighthouse (13o3—o5), in the 14th Leghorn became a rival of Porto Pisano at the mouth of the Arno, which it was destined ultimately to supplant. Urban V. and Gregory XI. landed at Leghorn on their return from Avignon. Charles VI. of France sold it for 26,00o ducats to the Genoese (1407) from whom the Florentines purchased it in 1421. In 1496 the city made a successful defence against Maximilian and his allies, but was still small; in 1551 there were only 749 inhabitants. With the rise of the Medici came a rapid increase of prosperity; Cosmo, Francis and Ferdinand erected fortifications and harbour works, warehouses and churches with equal liberality, and the last especially gave a stimulus to trade by inviting "men of the East and the West, Spaniards and Portuguese, Greeks, Germans, Ital ians, Hebrews, Turks, Moors, Armenians, Persians and others," to settle and traffic in the city, as it became in 1606. Declared free and neutral in 1691, Leghorn was permanently invested with these privileges by the Quadruple Alliance in 1718; but in 1796 Napo leon seized all the hostile vessels in its port. It ceased to be a free city by the law of 1868. (T. A.) See Pietro Vigo, Livorno (Bergamo, n.d.).