Novi

Novi lies north of Genoa, between the Ligurian mountains and the Piedmontese plain. Known as Curtis Nova in the tenth century, it grew into a fortified town and a free commune. Its position made it a contested possession of Tortona, Montferrat, Milan and Genoa.

Giovanni Visconti conquered Novi in 1353. The town was given to Genoa in 1392, but the commander Facino Cane occupied it from 1409 to 1412. After a period of changing rulers, Andrea Doria secured it for Genoa in 1529, and it remained with the republic until the Napoleonic era apart from a brief occupation in 1745–46. In 1799 an Austro-Russian army defeated the French at Novi; the French commander Barthélemy Joubert was killed. The town later entered the Kingdom of Sardinia after the fall of Napoleon.