Antonio Corazzi

Antonio Corazzi was a Livornese architect who projected many buildings in Warsaw, where a street is named after him.
Antonio Corazzi era un architetto livornese che progettò molti edifici a Varsavia, che gli ha dedicato una via.

External links: Antonio Corazzi (Wikipedia)
Link esterni: Antonio Corazzi (Wikipedia)

Piazza Rangoni

Street name sign in Piazza Garibaldi, formerly Piazza Rangoni.
Targa stradale in piazza Garibaldi, anticamente piazza Rangoni.

Via Montebello

The end of “Via Montebello”...
La fine di via Montebello...

Casa Mia

“Casa mia” (Home), Via Ferrigni.
“Casa mia”, via Ferrigni.

Sub tuum praesidium

A plaque outside a small chapel in Borgo dei Cappuccini. Sub tuum praesidium (Beneath Thy Protection) is the oldest preserved extant hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary as Theotokos, or Mother of God.

Una targa all'esterno di una piccola cappella in Borgo dei Cappuccini. Il Sub tuum praesidium (Sotto la Tua Protezione) è il più antico tropàrion devozionale cristiano a Maria, Madre di Gesù.

Sotto la Tua protezione cerchiamo rifugio, Santa Madre di Dio: non disprezzare le suppliche di noi che siamo nella prova, ma liberaci da ogni pericolo, o Vergine gloriosa e benedetta.

We fly to Thy protection, O Holy Mother of God; Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.

External links: Sub tuum praesidium - Theotokos (Wikipedia)
Link esterni: Sub tuum praesidium - Theotókos (Wikipedia)

Twenty Five Years

In the late evening of Wednesday April 10, 1991, the ferry “Moby Prince” collided with the oil tanker “Agip Abruzzo” just outside the port of Livorno. An extensive fire ravaged the ship and there was only one survivor, the other 140 on board were killed by the fire or toxic fumes. A plaque at the entrance of the Porto Mediceo remembers the names of the victims.

External links: Moby Prince disaster (Wikipedia)
See also: Moby Prince - Nineteen Years - Twenty Years - April 10, 1991

Versione italiana

Four Towers

A plaque of the “Labroarte Ceramiche” in Via Ernesto Rossi with the most important historical towers of Livorno: Marzocco Tower, the Matilda's Keep, the Meloria Tower, and the Pisans' Lighthouse.

(Already posted on Instagram)

See also: Torre del Marzocco - Mastio di Matilde - Meloria - The Lighthouse

Versione italiana

Church of the Dormition

The entrance of the Greek Orthodox Cemetery in Via Mastacchi.
The plaque outside the gate, in Greek and Italian, says: “Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archdiocese of Italy, church of the Dormition of Our Lady in Livorno.” The small church is barely visible from the outside.

(Photos taken last June)

See also: Old English Cemetery - New English Cemetery

Versione italiana

Via Ricasoli Forever

Someone wants to change the name of “Via Ricasoli”, for many reasons one of my favorite streets in town.

“Piazza Magenta” became “Piazza della Vittoria” (Victory Square) in 1924, “Piazza Roma” was renamed “Piazza Matteotti” in 1945: after decades, only out-of-towners call them with the “new” names. “Via Ricasoli” will be “Via Ricasoli” forever. Florence, Lucca, Siena, and Arezzo have one, only Pisa does not, and this should be decisive.

English version

April 10, 1991

In the late evening of Wednesday April 10, 1991, the ferry “Moby Prince” collided with the oil tanker “Agip Abruzzo” just outside the port of Livorno. An extensive fire ravaged the ship and there was only one survivor, the other 140 on board were killed by the fire or toxic fumes. A plaque at the entrance of the Porto Mediceo remembers the names of the victims.

External links: Moby Prince disaster (Wikipedia)
See also: Moby Prince - Nineteen Years - Twenty Years

Versione italiana

Dina and Dino

A few days ago two Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) have been placed in Via della Coroncina, where once lived the 44-year-old Dina Bona Attal and her 21-year-old son Dino Bueno. They were arrested near Lucca in December 1943 and both died in Auschwitz.

See also: Stolpersteine - Not Even One Year - Perla - Isacco Bayona
External links: Stolperstein (Wikipedia) - Dina Bona Attal - Dino Bueno (The names of the Italian Shoah)

Versione italiana

Isacco Bayona

Isacco Bayona was the son of Raffaele Bayona and Diamante Jacob. He was born in Greece, in Thessaloniki, on 21 July 1926. He was arrested in Gabbro (Livorno) with his mother, his elder brother Carlo and his younger sisters Lucia and Dora. They were all deported to the extermination camp of Auschwitz, Isacco was the only one who survived the Shoah.

See also: Stolpersteine - Not Even One Year - Perla - Dina and Dino
External links: Stolperstein - (Wikipedia) - Isacco Bayona (The names of the Italian Shoah)

Versione italiana

If This Is a Man

January 27th was the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this occasion a marble plaque has been unveiled on the side wall of our Town Hall: it bears a quote from “Se questo è un uomo” (If This Is a Man), a book by the Italian writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.

This poem is also known as Shema, a Hebrew word that means “hear” and the name of a very important Jewish prayer.

Se questo è un uomo Voi che vivete sicuri Nelle vostre tiepide case voi che trovate tornando a sera Il cibo caldo e visi amici: Considerate se questo è un uomo Che lavora nel fango Che non conosce pace Che lotta per mezzo pane Che muore per un sì o per un no. Considerate se questa è una donna Senza capelli e senza nome Senza più forza di ricordare Vuoti gli occhi e freddo il grembo Come una rana d'inverno. Meditate che questo è stato Vi comando queste parole. Scolpitele nel vostro cuore Stando in casa andando per via Coricandovi alzandovi Ripetetele ai vostri figli. O vi si sfaccia la casa La malattia vi impedisca I vostri nati torcano il viso da voi.

If This Is a Man You who live safe In your warm houses, You who find, returning in the evening, Hot food and friendly faces: Consider if this is a man Who works in the mud, Who does not know peace, Who fights for a scrap of bread, Who dies because of a yes or a no. Consider if this is a woman Without hair and without name, With no more strength to remember, Her eyes empty and her womb cold Like a frog in winter. Meditate that this came about: I commend these words to you. Carve them in your hearts At home, in the street, Going to bed, rising; Repeat them to your children. Or may your house fall apart, May illness impede you, May your children turn their faces from you.

External links: International Holocaust Remembrance Day - Primo Levi - If This Is a Man - Shema Yisrael (Wikipedia)
See also: Town Hall

Versione italiana

After the Pestilence

A detail of the plaque on the façade of the church of San Sebastiano:

“Temple dedicated to Sebastian martyr and benefactor, after the pestilence, in 1633
Damaged by time and by an earthquake, it was restored in 1880”

See also: San Sebastiano

Versione italiana

Perla

A stolperstein in Via Dario Cassuto, dedicated to Perla Beniacar.

She was born in Livorno on 19 June 1935, the daughter of Moise Beniacar and Estrea Levi, a family that had recently arrived in town from Smirne, Turkey. Perla, which means pearl, was also the name of her paternal grandmother. She had three siblings: Matilde, Bulissa Luisa and Giacobbe Giacomo.
They were all arrested on 21 January 1944 in Borgo a Buggiano (Pistoia) and deported to Auschwitz, where Perla died on 26 February 1944. The only member of her family who survived the Shoah was her sister Matilde.

See also: Stolpersteine - Not Even One Year - Isacco Bayona - Dina and Dino
External links: Stolperstein - (Wikipedia) - Perla Beniacar (The names of the Italian Shoah)

Versione italiana

Modigliani in Venice

Plaque on the facade of a building on Fondamenta San Basegio, where Amedeo Modigliani had his studio in Venice in 1905. The quotation is from a letter to the Livornese painter and friend Oscar Ghiglia.

“Da Venezia ho ricevuto gli insegnamenti più preziosi della vita;
da Venezia sembra di uscirmene adesso come accresciuto dopo un lavoro..”
(From Venice I received the most valuable lessons of life,
on leaving Venice I feel like I am grown after a work..)

“Modigliani moved to Venice in the spring of 1903 and enrolled in the Scuola Libera del Nudo at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in May. All his life Modigliani made friends easily, and he was making contact with a distinguished group: Umberto Boccioni, the Futurist painter and sculptor, Fabio Mauroner, with whom he shared a studio in the San Barnaba quarter and whose interests would include sculpture, painting, the graphic arts, and art criticism; as well as artists Mario Crepet, Cesare Mainella, Guido Marussig, Ardengo Soffici, and Guido Cadorin. Such encounters with the cream of intellectual and artistic life in Venice suggest assiduous cultivation. Perhaps it was in Venice that Modigliani learned the pivotal rule for the up-and-coming young artist, the right cafés at the right moment. In Venice it was the Florian, which never closed. Meanwhile he occasionally went to life classes, relying on his eye and the lessons to be had by daily visits to the great museums, studying the Bellinis and Carpaccios with concentration.”

(Meryle Secrest, Modigliani: A Life, 2011)

External links: The Misunderstood Death of Modigliani (The New York Times) - Meryle Secrest (Wikipedia)
Search labels: Modigliani

Versione italiana

Christian Frederik and Caroline Amalie

Christian Frederik (1786-1848) was the crown prince of Denmark when, in May 1821, visited Livorno with his wife, the princess Caroline Amalie (1796-1881). He will become king in 1839.

This plaque was placed at the time in the hall of the house of the Consul of the Kingdom of Denmark, where the royal couple spent the night. I have been looking for this plaque for a while and I was finally able to find it with the help of my friend Stefano.

External links: Christian VIII of Denmark - Caroline Amalie (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

Trebialdule

Ask a Livornese if he knows where is (or was) a place called Trebialdule and it is almost certain that the answer would be no. The most daring would speculate about a faraway land or some mythical tales, without knowing that the answer is at one end of Via Grande, about where Piazza Guerrazzi lies today.

The toponym was first mentioned in ecclesiastical records in 891 and comes from “Trebbio di Aldule”, where trebbio is an old form of trivio, which is the meeting of three roads. The first road once lead to Salviano and then to the Via Aemilia Scauri, the second coasted the ancient “Porto Pisano”, while the third lead eastward, toward the sea and the tiny hamlet of Livorno. It seems that this is the place where the first church of Santa Giulia, the patroness of Livorno, was built. A quite large and verbose plaque in Via Santa Barbara reminds us of this story. (Map from the “Annali di Livorno” by Giuseppe Vivoli)

Fronteggiava questo palazzo - unica nella popolare via Grande
la chiesa della Misericordia - già di Santa Barbara
e prima ancora duomo designato della nuova ampia Livorno Medicea
elevato su resti presumibilmente appartenuti alla memorata
pieve matrice di Santa Giulia di Porto pisano

Antica tradizione e indagine urbanistica avvertono che qui vicino al famoso scalo della laguna pisana
era il trebbio di Aldule donde si diramavano le vie per Pisa Roma e la cala di Liburna e Livorna
quivi sarebbe sorta - forse sul posto del sovente citato tempio d'Ercole e sotto il titolo di S. Maria
la prima chiesa della nostra terra che dopo la traslazione del corpo della patrona dalla Gorgona a Brescia
- operata da re Desiderio dei Longobardi intorno all'anno 762 - troviamo nominata S. Giulia di Trebialdule
in essa Adelchi avrebbe implorato protezione da qui salpando esule per Costantinopoli
nel 1286 la pieve e il piviere di porto pisano andarono devastati dalle milizie di Carlo d'Angiò
sui citati resti il granduca Francesco dei Medici - il 18 giugno 1581 - prese a elevare una più ampia costruzione
perché servisse da duomo alla rinascimentale “città ideale” fondata il 28 marzo 1577 su piano del Buontalenti
allineante sulla chiesa quella che è tuttora la maggior via cittadina
sorto - con la piazza Grande - nel 1595 - l'attuale duomo “a fundamentis” la chiesa ricordata passò alla compagnia
che ha lasciato il nome a questa strada e - nel 1780 - come detto - all'arciconfraternita della Misericordia
finché colpita dalla guerra nel 1944 scomparve del tutto nel 1953

Ponevasi questo ricordo il 22 maggio 1962 - nello stesso giorno di accomiatava dalla diocesi
il vescovo S.E. Mons. Andrea Pancrazio - promosso arcivescovo di Gorizia - per la cui iniziativa fu eretto nella cattedrale
l'altare per accogliere le reliquie della santa patrona ritornati dopo dodici secoli

External links: A 1160 unpublished document (in Latin)

Versione italiana

Not Even One Year

At first I thought it was a mistake in the writing on the stolperstein, but it wasn't: when Franca was “arrested”, deported and killed she wasn't even one year old.

See also: Stolpersteine - Perla - Isacco Bayona - Dina and Dino
External links: Stolperstein (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

Stolpersteine

Stolperstein literally translates as ‘stumbling stone’ and it is a small stone cube with the top sie covered in brass and etched with the name of a Jew or other victim of the Nazi regime who was deported and killed in a concentration camp. It is usually placed on the sidewalk of the house where they once lived. The dates of their deportation and death are also inscribed on the stone, following a project started by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1994, when the first stones were placed in Cologne.

Last week four Stolpersteine have been laid in three streets of Livorno.

Two of them are in front of the same building in Via Verdi remembering a father and his twelve year son.

See also: Not Even One Year - Perla - Isacco Bayona - Dina and Dino
External links: Stolperstein - Gunter Demnig (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana