The Public Promenade. The City of the 800's

But, as we said, the city that really impresses you is the one that rose together with the Naval Arsenal. In fact Napoleon had already intuitively envisaged the military potential of the “Loveliest gulf in the universe” – these were his very words – in the early XIX Century, where he planned to build an organized fortified defensive system, led by the city named after him, along the far western part of the coast in the direction of Porto Venere.
Napoleon’s dream having collapsed and the project of an imperial city abandoned, the idea of founding an Arsenal at La Spezia was taken up again by Minister Cavour, not without arousing widespread objections and discussions. The gigantic construction site, assigned to the direction of Domenico Chiodo, lasted for about eight years until the great naval base was officially opened on 28 August 1869.

The two main roads, at right-angles to each other, in the 19th century city were actually named after the two protagonists of these works, which were so important for the community of La Spezia. Via Chiodo, with its porticoes, runs between piazza Verdi and piazza Chiodo, with the main entrance to the Naval Arsenal to the west as its backdrop: it is an elegant road with late neoclassical style buildings, partly rebuilt after being damaged during the Second World War and once mainly used as hotels. The airy volumes of what was Hotel Croce di Malta, commissioned by the Marquise of Passano and built in the middle of the 19th century, after lengthy attentive renovation works, is now the prestigious head office of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia. It used to be right on the sea, where via Giovanni Minzoni now runs and had two twin buildings at the sides, used as bathing establishments with the typical construction of the times, they now no longer stand after the destination of the building had been changed to house the head office of the Banco di Napoli from 1921 until 1995.