The public cemetery "La Cigna" was built to owe to the necessity of a burial ground of pro-portionate size to face the emergency caused by the "yellow fever" epidemic which broke out in Livorno during the month of August in 1804.
It was the fourth public open graveyard , beginning from 1770, outside built-up areas of Li-vorno, and it was conceived as a modern digging up cemetery according to the dispositions fixed by "leopoldine" rules of 1783.
The project was drawn up by the architect Riccardo Calocchieri in the month of October 1807, but the works ended in the month of October 1822. It was enlarged for the first time in 1891 according to the project of the public engineer Angelo Unis, in 1910 was

again expanded englobing the small ceme-teries of Ottoman and Waldenses communities.
Six years later the Cinerary Temple of Cremation Society was erected.
Together with some valuables examples of local handcrafts of the last two centuries, among the tombs and funeral monuments of the cemetery, works by the sculptors Gori, Zilocchi, Bois, Tar-rini, Gemignani e Fioravanti are preserved.
Local public governments of Livorno have always preserved the original feature as place of rest for the deads of different creeds and rites, as the city of Livorno, always crossroad of different ethnic groups, has always preserved this peculiarity.