page_title: Bombing of Livorno in World War II
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Bombing of Livorno in World War II / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: La celebre sinagoga di Livorno, una delle maggiori d'Europa, distrutta dai bombardamenti durante la Seconda Guerra mondiale.
context_page_description: During World War II the Italian port city of Livorno, Tuscany, was repeatedly bombed by the Allied air forces, altogether suffering about a hundred raids which resulted in it being among the most war-damaged cities in Italy.
context_section_description: On 19 July 1944, Livorno was liberated by the U.S. Fifth Army and by Italian partisans; they found, in the words of historian James Holland, "a ghost town, lying in ruins, pulverised by Allied bombing". Before leaving the city, German engineers blew up the surviving port facilities, the beach resorts, the Lighthouse and several bridges and buildings, adding further destruction to the one caused by the air raids. On 29 July, a few Luftwaffe bombers carried out a single raid on Livorno, causing little damage. Altogether, Livorno had suffered fifty-six air raids.
  After the liberation, local authorities carried out a survey which revealed that 15.78 % of all buildings in Livorno had been completely destroyed, 14.94 % had been badly damaged, 26.14 % had been lightly damaged, and 43.14 % had escaped damage. In the city centre, only 8.38 % of all buildings had escaped damage; 33.38 % had been completely destroyed, 27.94 % badly damaged and 28.30 % had been moderately or lightly damaged. Over 30,000 people were left homeless.
  Estimates of deaths among the civilian population vary between 700 and 1,300.
   
  Cultural heritage suffered considerable damage. The Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi was completely destroyed, but rebuilt as it was after the war; the ancient churches of Santa Barbara and San Gregorio Illuminatore (used by the Armenian community of Livorno) were destroyed and never rebuilt, whereas the Greek church of Santissima Annunziata and the historic Palazzo Comunale and Palazzo Granducale were also largely destroyed but were restored after the war. Both the Fortezza Vecchia and the Fortezza Nuova were badly damaged; most of the historic palaces located along the Via Grande, Livorno's decuman, were badly damaged or destroyed, and the 19th century Dogana d'acqua (port customs) was reduced to ruins. Three of the city's four major theatres, built between the 18th and the 19th century, were destroyed or badly damaged and never rebuilt. The old Synagogue, the second largest synagogue in Europe, was partially destroyed and never rebuilt, being replaced by a new synagogue after the war. The Venezia Nuova district, built between the 17th and 18th centuries, was largely destroyed, but many of its historic palaces were repaired or rebuilt after the war. The Old English Cemetery also suffered serious damage.
  Heavy damage was suffered by the city’s industries; most of the Livorno industrial area was destroyed by the air raids, with all major factories – SPICA, Richard Ginori, Motofides, Cementeria Italiana (cement factory), Società Metallurgica Italiana (steel works), Manifatture Riunite (cotton mill), ANIC (oil refinery) – being destroyed or badly damaged, leaving thousands of workers unemployed. The port facilities and the shipyard were completely destroyed, not only by the air raids but also by the retreating Germans, who destroyed with explosive charges any part that had survived the raids in order to prevent its use by the Allies. Over 130 vessels of all types and sizes, part of them sunk by the air raids and part scuttled as blockships by the Germans, littered the harbour (which was also sown with mines) and blocked its entrances.
   On 18 October 1944, three months after the liberation, the city council formed a committee for the reconstruction of the city. Postal service resumed on 18 December; in January 1945 the Spedali Riuniti, Livorno’s main hospital, started operating again. Between 1945 and 1949 over seventy cooperatives were born, tasked with clearing the rubble, tearing down irreparably damaged buildings, repairing repairable buildings and building new ones.
caption: Ruins of the Old Synagogue after a raid
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