La Spezia and Art Nouveau (or Liberty)

In 1903, Turin held the Universal Exhibition marking the birth of the Art Nouveau style in Italy. Expression of a style encompassing all Arts and the result of the modernist thinking of William Morris (1834-1896), the name given to this style in Italy is Liberty and comes from a London store by Arthur Liberty. This store for the first time was showing the Italian public the innovations of modern craftsmanship during the Turin’s exhibition. 

La Spezia, between the 19th and 20th century, experienced its full economic development: after the opening of the Italian Navy Base in 1869, the city radically changed its appearance, also in terms of city planning, and the art scene adjusted to the new trends.

One of the main features that distinguishes the local interpretation of Liberty is that this style first spread in a working-class district of the city, the so-called “quartiere Ubertino”, commissioned by the King Umberto I to host the workforce coming from all over the country and built in record time between 1885 and 1889.

If on one hand the new middle-class, made of entrepreneurs and industrialists, built villas and private mansions on the hills overlooking the gulf, on the other hand the historic center was changing – squares and public gardens were embellished by ornaments in wrought iron and cast iron - the favorite materials of designers of that period. 

Social life took place in cafes, walking under the porticoes of Via Chiodo, or in the public gardens where parties and concerts flourished. Theaters were also very popular. The Trianon Theater, today no longer visible, designed by Vincenzo Bacigalupi in 1907, was one of the most elegant halls in the city, with lamp lights upheld by female figures and frescoes.