Description : Albenga (Ligurian: Arbenga; Latin: Albingaunum) is a city and comune situated on the Gulf of Genoa on the Italian Riviera in the Province of Savona in Liguria, northern Italy. Albenga has the nickname of city of a hundred spires. The economy is mostly based on tourism, local commerce and agriculture. Albenga has six hamlets: Lusignano, San Fedele, Campochiesa, Leca, Bastia, Salea. A settlement of pre-Roman origins on the west side of the Ligurian coast, it was founded around the 4th century BC on the slopes of the coastal hills, becoming the capital of the Ingauni Ligures tribe, who dedicated themselves to marine activities and controlled a large territory between Finale and Sanremo. During the Second Punic War the city allied itself with the Carthaginians, but was defeated by the Romans under proconsul Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus in 181 BC. The following year the Romans and the Ingauni signed a foedus (alliance agreement) which began the total Romanization of the whole region. Put under Latin rights in 89 BC, Albingaunum was granted Roman citizenship in 45 BC under Julius Caesar, starting to enjoy, with the beginning of the Empire, a period of prosperity. A further boost for the city came from the building of the Via Julia Augusta (13 BC), connecting it to southern France and Spain. In the meantime the intense exploitation of the flat land around the city continued; an inscription records the restoration of the walls, forum, and harbor, by Constantius in A.D. 354. During the 5th century, the city suffered from raids by the Visigoths, who partly destroyed and sacked it. The old Municipium, which now in a disastrous conditions, was rebuilt through the intervention of emperor Constantius III who gave the city stability and a defensive structure that allowed it to survive through the following centuries. Albenga established itself as a commune in 1098; in that same year it took part in the First Crusade with vessels, men and money, receiving rights of free trade by the King of Jerusalem. From that time on, the Golden Red Cross coat of arms was displayed on its ships and on its towers. Later, after the invasion of northern Italy by emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the city supported him thanks to its Ghibelline allegiance, which was never abandoned during the following centuries. In 1159 it received imperial investiture for all its territory.
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