THE ESPRIT

Society

Sarzana (La Spezia), Firmafede Fortress, underground

The Bonaparte government also represented, everywhere and at many levels, the decisive renovation of society, pursued and implemented through legislative initiatives – it is enough to think of the Napoleonic Code or of the Rural Codes of the Principality of Lucca and Piombino promulgated by the Baciocchi – as well as through extraordinary development operations in many local productive industries. New or renewed pre–industrial settlements, recuperation of entire towns with the invention of new destinations, strengthening of agriculture and its technological renewal: a unity of measures and actions that would become powerful, long–lasting elements of progress and economic rebirth.