The Duomo di Livorno, or Cathedral of San Francesco, is the main place of worship of the city. It is located in Piazza Grande, the heart of the city’s historic centre.
It was built between 1594 and 1606 to a design by Alessandro Pieroni and expanded in the 1700s with the addition of chapels. The church, devastated by bombing in 1943, was rebuilt after the war, following the original lines. It has a simple marble-clad façade, preceded by a portico on Doric coupled columns surmounted by a terrace. At the back stands the quadrangular bell tower, made of brick like the outer walls. The interior has a Latin cross plan, due to the presence of two side chapels: on the left is the Holy Sacrament chapel, begun in 1716 to a design by Giovanni del Fantasia and frescoed by Giuseppe Maria Terreni, with an altar attributed to the workshop of Giovanni Baratta; on the right is the Conception of Mary chapel, built in 1727, later decorated with paintings by Luigi Ademollo, leading to the baptistery. The frescoes in both chapels were destroyed during the Second World War. At the entrance to the church is the funeral monument to Marco Alessandro del Borro, governor of Livorno, an 18th-century work by Giovan Battista Foggini, severely damaged by bombing. A little further, along the right wall, is the tomb of Carlo Ginori, who was governor of Livorno in the mid-18th century.
