Rigenerazione del Complesso Monumentale della Fortezza Nuova di Livorno: un nuovo accesso per la città

The first stone of Fortezza Nuova was placed on January 10, 1590: a military citadel born with the purpose of defending the newborn city of Leghorn from inland. The military purpose has gradually decayed due to the later eras’ needs. Nowadays, the entire complex looks like a large, monumental area, used as a public park in the heart of the city: inside only remain the ruins of the ancient military citadel’s buildings. Despite a series of contemporary interventions that led to its reopening to the public since 2014, the whole fort isn’t properly valued from a cultural and tourist perspective. Actually, the fortress is essentially used to organize temporary events, that have nothing to do with the original vocation and with the storic-architectural importance of the place. The current fate of the fortitude is due not only to its degradation conditions, highlighted by a historical-stratigraphic and landscape study, but also to the total absence of a system of pathway that can factually connected it to citizens’ and tourists’ life, like the urban analysis have dimostrated. For this reason, the project concerned not only the fortress itself but also the system of accessibility, traffic, and the central places in the surrounding area. In addition to the project of the recovery and reuse of the interior buildings and the reorganization of the vehicular, pedestrian and public transport system, we have designed two new arched bridges to access the complex and a new public square directly connected to one of them. In this way the Fortezza Nuova is configured as a new cultural pole, which thanks to its strategic position can rise to the role of a new access to the city.