Novi Ligure

Town, Alessandria provincia, Piedmont regione, northwestern Italy, north of Genoa. A free commune until 1192, it then fell successively to Tortona and Milan before passing to Genoa in 1447. It was the scene of an Austro-Russian army's defeat of the French in 1799. Novi Ligure is now an important rail and road junction with iron and steel, food, and textile industries. Pop. (1993 est.) mun., 29,653.