The oldest and most popular statue in Livorno and a metaphor for the victory of the Medici, grand-dukes of Tuscany, over the pirates who roamed the Mediterranean basin.

The monument consists of two parts, one in marble and the other in bronze. The former, in Carrara marble, shows Ferdinando I dei Medici in the uniform of grand master of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen, a navy established to fight the piracy which was an obstacle to free trade and the development of the growing Medicean port.

Created by the Florentine sculptor, Giovanni Bandini, known as Giovanni dell'Opera, it was finished in 1595 while Ferdinando I was still alive, but it was only in 1617, when Cosimo II was ruler, that the statue was placed on its pedestal.

The Four Moors, works of considerable merit by the Carrara sculptor, Pietro Tacca, a pupil of Giambologna, were added at a later date.

The Moors were placed at the corners of the plinth on two separate occasions between 1623 and 1626, under Ferdinando II’s regency.

In 1861 the statue was moved about 20 metres to its present position. On the occasion it was completely renovated and enhanced with eight pink Campiglia marble slabs. A parchment scroll commemorating the renovation and move was placed under the base of Ferdinando’s statue on 11 August 1888. During the Second World War it was once again dismantled to protect it from aerial bombardments. At the end of the war it was returned to its place.

Inauguration of the monument in the presence of Prince Ferdinando and his consort, Maria Teresa Della Rovere, the city authorities and the sculptor, Pietro Tacca himself is commemorated in a fresco by Annibale Gatti in the salon at Villa Mimbelli.