Livorno: l’architettura della diaspora neo-greca

This paper aims to understand the role of the Greek community in the urban and architectural development of Livorno, distinguishing it from the initiative promoted by the duke and his technicians. I will therefore not examine the major interventions promoted by the dukes, later grand dukes, and implemented through the delegated officials and the administrative structure involved in the city planning of Livorno. Two significant episodes, the church of San Jacopo and the village and dwellings of the Greeks in the new city of Livorno, before and after the construction of the church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Greci, show the role of the Greek community in the architectural and urban development of Livorno. These cases represent important examples of the way in which the Greek community influenced Livorno's urban development and its urban-architectural layout. A mixture of elements drawn from the religious architecture of the country of origin, but also civil architecture of the host country, fused to form a single architectural episode forged according to the taste of the new inhabitants, adapted according to their liturgical use, but built according to the rules and practice of Tuscan building, following the Medici ducal directives.