Savona

Savona is a harbour town on the Ligurian Riviera di Ponente, a bishop's seat since 999 and a free commune since 1191. In the thirteenth century it served as the base of the imperial fleet in the wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines, and from 1251 it fell under Genoa, which governed it through a podestà. Savona was known for its medieval soap, and in the fifteenth century it became the City of the Popes, the home of Sixtus IV (1471–1484) and Julius II (1503–1513) of the Della Rovere family, who enriched it with gifts.

The Della Rovere years were the peak of its prosperity. Sixtus IV had the Ponte di San Giacomo built in 1479, the Carthusian house of Loreto went up around 1480, and in 1495 Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Julius II, began his palace to a design by Giuliano da Sangallo. A bridge of Filippo Maria Visconti dates from 1434, and after an apparition of the Virgin to Antonio Botta, traditionally in 1536, the sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Misericordia was raised. The long struggle with Genoa ended in disaster in 1528, when Genoa conquered the city, killed many people, destroyed much of the town and buried the port. Savona followed the Republic of Genoa from then on, recovered its seafaring in the eighteenth century, and in 1805 under the French became capital of the department of Montenotte.