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La Spezia
Comune
Comune della Spezia
Panorama of La Spezia
Coat of arms
La Spezia Location of La Spezia in Italy
Coordinates: 44°06′N 09°49′E / 44.100°N 9.817°E / 44.100; 9.817Coordinates: 44°06′N 09°49′E / 44.100°N 9.817°E / 44.100; 9.817
Country	Italy
Region	Liguria
Province	La Spezia (SP)
Frazioni	Biassa, Campiglia, La Foce, Pitelli, San Venerio, Sarbia
Government
• Mayor	Pierluigi Peracchini (centre-right)
Area
• Total	51.39 km2 (19.84 sq mi)
Elevation	10 m (30 ft)
Population (30 September 2015),[1] "La Spezia 2007" (in Italian)
• Total	93,983
• Density	1,800/km2 (4,700/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Spezzini
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	19100, 19121–19126, 19131–19139
Dialing code	0187
Patron saint	St. Joseph
Saint day	19 March
Website	Official website

La Spezia (Italian: [la ˈspɛttsja] ( listen); A Spèza in the local Spezzino dialect), at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Northern Italy, is the capital city of the province of La Spezia.

In terms of population, La Spezia is the second city in the Liguria region, just after Genoa. Located roughly midway between Genoa and Pisa, on the Ligurian Sea, it is one of the main Italian military and commercial harbours and a major Italian Navy base. A significant railway junction, it is notable for its museums, for the Palio del Golfo rowing race, and for railway and boat links with the Cinque Terre.

History

Map of La Spezia (German, late 19th-century).

La Spezia and its province have been settled since prehistoric times. In Roman times the most important centre was Luni, not far from Sarzana. As the capital of the short-lived Niccolò Fieschi Signoria in the period between 1256 and 1273, La Spezia was inevitably linked with Genoese vicissitudes. After the fall of the Serene Republic of Genoa, an independent state until 1797, La Spezia grew, developed and changed, though along lines similar to Liguria's capital Genoa. This Ligurian influence can still be seen in the urban layout as well as in the types of buildings and decorations. This is notable in the carrugio, the narrow street that divides the Old Town into two. It is called Via del Prione, taking its name from the pietrone or large stone, in local dialect prione, where public announcements were once read out.

Walking landwards from the sea it is possible to see partly hidden, but still evident, traces of history: engraved stones, capitals, and portals in fourteenth century sandstone, double lancet windows vaguely reminiscent of the future renaissance style of mannerism, baroque pediments, and decorations similar to those adorning the portals of the palaces once belonging to the Doria family and the Princes of Massa.

La Spezia developed substantially after 1861 when the great naval arsenal there was commissioned by the Royal government. In September 1943, after the Italian capitulation to the Allies, it was the departure port for the Italian Navy when it was ordered to steam into British hands at Malta. The Germans arrived too late to stop the departure of the fleet. During the war Italian troopships also left from La Spezia, including the Kaiser Franz Josef, a trans-Atlantic liner launched in Trieste in 1911 for the Austrian Lloyd company, which Italy had confiscated in 1919. It was sunk in La Spezia harbour in 1944.

After the liberation, La Spezia became the point of departure for survivors from Nazi concentration camps. From the summer of 1945 to the spring of 1948 more than 23,000 Jewish displaced persons managed to leave Italy clandestinely for the Palestine Mandate. After lengthy vicissitudes, the ships Fede, Fenice, and Komemiut managed to evacuate everyone from the Golfo di La Spezia, to the extent that on Israeli maps, La Spezia is called Shàar Zion , in Hebrew Gateway to Zion.

Main sights

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, thirteenth century.

St. George Castle.

Churches

• 
  Cristo Re dei Secoli, modern cathedral, consecrated in 1975, designed by Adalberto Libera.


• Abbey church of Santa Maria Assunta ("Our Lady of the Assumption", thirteenth century). It houses a considerable series of artworks, some of them originally from other suppressed religious institutes. They include an Incoronation of the Virgin by Andrea della Robbia, the Multiplication of Bread by Giovanni Battista Casoni and St. Bartholomew's Martyrdom by Luca Cambiaso.


• 
  Santi Giovanni e Agostino. It has a single nave with eighteenth and nineteenth century decorations.


• 
  Nostra Signora della Scorza. Built in 1900 in Piazza Brin, in the heart of what is now a working-class neighborhood, Quartiere Umbertino.

Museums

• 
  Ubaldo Formentini— Civic Museum in the Castle of San Giorgio


• 
  Amedeo Lia Museum


• 
  Palazzina delle Arti and Museum of Seals


• Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (CAMeC)


• Diocesan Museum


• Ethnographic Civic Museum


• Technical Naval Museum


• National Transportation Museum

Others

• Castle of San Giorgio, recently restored, probably originated from a watchtower. A first castle is known to have been built by Niccolò Fieschi in 1262. In 1273 it was destroyed by the Genoese, and a new fortification, along with a new line of walls, was erected by the podesteria of La Spezia from 1371. Annexed to this, the Republic of Genoa added a new castle starting from 1607.


• Public Gardens


• 
  Art Nouveau–style villas


• 
  Futurist mosaic by Prampolini inside the Post Office


• La Spezia is a point of departure for the villages of the Cinque Terre, either by train or boat. The boat also serves Lerici and Portovenere before turning into the open sea toward the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre villages are accessible by public transport, 15 kilometres (9 mi) from central railway station.

A general view of the city, from the surrounding mountains to the city's port.

Climate

La Spezia has a borderline humid subtropical (Cfa) and Mediterranean climate (Csa), since only one month receives less than 40 millimetres (1.6 in). The city enjoys hot summers, chilly damp winters and very changeable and rainy autumns and springs. The average temperatures of the coldest month (January) are 4 °C (39 °F) minimum and 11 °C (52 °F) maximum. In the hottest month (July) they are 20 °C (68 °F) minimum and 29 °C (84 °F) maximum. Average annual precipitation is 1,314 millimetres (51.7 in), more than twice that in London. Snow is extremely uncommon. Heavy snowfalls are exceptional events: only in 1985 was a snowfall of more than 50 centimetres (20 in) recorded. Another big snowfall occurred during the night of 18 December 2009, with approximately 25 centimetres (9.8 in) of snow and temperatures as low as −7.4 °C (18.7 °F) in the following nights.

In winter nights, if the sky is clear, temperatures may fall below zero, usually reaching about −2 to −4 °C (28 to 25 °F). Conversely, in summer, especially during sunny days, the temperature can easily exceed 30 °C (86 °F), and sometimes it reaches 35 °C (95 °F). Furthermore, the sensation of heat in summer is increased by the high humidity.

Because of its topography, the city is not exposed to winds from the north, which lap western Liguria, but to those from the southeast. These may bring heavy rain and they can reach 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph), in rare cases causing the blocking of the port.
The only northern wind reaching the city is the north-eastern Grecale, common during incursions of Arctic air, when the cold air flowing over the warmer Tyrrhenian sea triggers the formation of low pressures, draining the colder and heavier air trapped in the Po Valley, behind the Apennine Mountains.

People

Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, 1862.

• 
  Alessia Aquilani (Alexia), (born 1967), singer


• 
  Toto Cutugno (born 1943), singer


• 
  Leonardo D'Imporzano, (born 1982), freediver and journalist


• 
  Gian Paolo Dulbecco, (born 1941), painter


• 
  Giancarlo Giannini, (born 1942), actor


• 
  Ettore Gracis, (1915-1992), conductor


• 
  Markus Hinterhäuser (born 1958), Austrian pianist and cultural manager


• 
  Virginia Oldoini, (1837-1899), countess of Castiglione


• 
  Eros Pagni, (born 1939), actor


• 
  Gaetano Pesce, (born 1939), architect designer


• 
  Arrigo Petacco, (1929-2018), writer, historian and journalist


• 
  Alessandro Petacchi, (born 1974), cyclist


• 
  Lorenzo Richelmy, (born 1990), actor


• 
  Gino Rossetti (1904–1992), football player


• 
  Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988), composer


• 
  Alberto Sorrentino, (1916-1994), actor


• 
  Sauro Tomà (born 1925), football player

Economy

Today, La Spezia is the chief Italian naval base and arsenal and the base for a navigation school. It is also a commercial port, with shipyards and industries producing machinery, metal products, and refined petroleum.

Education

Since 2002, a university named G. Marconi has had its headquarters in La Spezia.

International relations

La Spezia is twinned with:

• 
  Toulon, France


• 
  Bayreuth, Germany


• 
  Vallejo, California, USA^[2]
  

See also

• La Spezia–Rimini Line


• Spezia Calcio 1906


• Stadio Alberto Picco

References

Sources

• 
  Clerici, Carlo Alfredo; Pesaresi, Piero (August–September 1999). "Le difese costiere della Spezia". Uniformi e Armi: 48–53.
  

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to La Spezia.

• Satellite picture by Google Maps


• 
  A Path to Lunch—Archive and blog centered in Lunigiana/La Spezia. Walks, buses, food, history


• 
   "Spezia". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.