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Lucca rivals any city in Italy for fascination and beauty.
One century flows into the next - and right up to the present - as you walk past shops with medieval and
art-nouveau façades, cross a Roman amphitheatre tumed piazza and stroll along the magnificent 16th-century ramparts that
are now a pleasure garden. This is 'the Tuscany that still lives and
enjoys, hopes and works' (Henry ]ames). Lucca is located in a plain at the foot of the high Apuan Alps and
separated from the Tyrrhenian coast by a green border of pine-forest and a line of low hills. Thanks to its impenetrable
walls, Lucca remained an independent city until the 19th century, long after most other Tuscan cities had became part
of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany under the control of Florence.
Sights:
Anfiteatro Romano (n° 7 on the map)
The Roman amphitheatre (2nd century AD) is now underground beneath this strange piazza and its former exterior is a street - Via
dell'Anfiteatro. You can see one of the original arches at No 32. The amphitheatre was elliptical in shape and had two levels of
55 arches, one on top of the other.
Duomo San Martino (Opera del Duomo) (n° 3 on the map)
Bishop Frediano commissioned the building of the church of San Martino in the 6th century and the edifice advanced to the status of
cathedral in the 8th century. Another bishop of Lucca and Pope Alexander
II rebuilt it a couple of centuries apart. On the latter version, Guidetto da
Como created its façade: a series of loggias resting on pillars and an atrium packed with bas-reliefs (1233) depicting the
four stories of St Martin, the dispute with the Aryans and the Martyrdom of San Regolo. The great sculptor, Nicola Pisano, added a
Nativity and Deposition. The porch is decorated with the tasks of the 12 months of the year, from giving a
girl roses to slaughtering a pig.
Inside, the cathedral's pride and joy is the Volto Santo ('Holy Face'), an ancient wooden statue of a bearded Christ on the Cross, fully
dressed, with a feminine tace - said to bave been carved by St Nicodemus. The people of Lucca bave worshipped it far centuries. The
cross is rumoured to contain relics - hairs of Christ, a phial of blood and, believe or not,
Our Lord's prepuce.
The marble figure of Ilaria del Carretto is Lucca's greatest
monument. Maria, the 19-year-old wife of nobleman Paolo Guinigi, died in childbirth at the beginning of the 15th century. Short of
freezing ber head, there is nothing more sculptor Jacopo della Quercia could
have done to immortalise her. The beautiful young woman seems to have fallen asleep on a cushion. At
her feet is an alert lapdog, a symbol of fidelity. Other important works in the cathedral include:
Last Supper by Tintoretto or his school (16th century) in the third altar; Madonna with Child by Domenico Ghirlandaio (15th century) in
the sacristy; Resurrection by Giambologna (16th century) in the so-called Freedom Chapel at the top of the left nave; Madonna and Child
between Two Saints by Fra Bartolomeo (16th century) in the Madonna of the Sanctuary Chapel; and Holy Apostle (1416) by
Jacopo della Quercia (in the left transept). There is also much fine work by Matteo
Civitali, Lucca's best sculptor, including the pulpit, baptistry font and the tombs of Domenico Bertini and Pietro da Noceto in the south
transept.
The Cathedral Museum, next door, was opened in 1992 as an ad of piety and PR by a local bank. It is full of objects relating to the cult of
the Volto as well as cathedral treasures: liturgical vestments, choir books, silver objects, paintings and statues.
Le Mure
Lucca is one of the few towns in Italy with a set of defensive walls
perfectly intact (for what it is worth, they are, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest completely preserved set
of walls in Europe). The 4km circuit of wall was started in 1554 and took nearly a century to complete. Twelve metres high, it consists of
11 curtain walls, 10 bastions and 1 platform, called San Frediano, The base is 30m thick. On the bastions, the little barracks
still stand that once housed guards or munitions. One hundred and twenty-four
cannons defended the city until the Austrians removed them in 1799. The walls of Lucca were so intimidating that no one ever dared to
besiege the city. The only assault it was ever called on to withstand was the great flood of 1812 when the Serchio river overflowed its
banks and turned the plain around Lucca into a lake. Maria Luisa Bourbon, acting on the suggestion of Napoleon's sister, Elisabeth
Baciocchi, transformed the ramparts into a public garden. It is thanks to
her that the people of Lucca take their passeggiata, the ritual evening walk, beneath the ancient
plane, oak, lime and chestnut trees.
Piazza San Michele (n° 4 on the map)
The Piazza San Michele stands on the gite of the former Roman forum.
The church of San Michele in Foro", firstmentioned in a document of AD 795, was rebuilt in the 11th century and completed in its present
form in the 14th century. The brilliant white façade is a dreamy fusion of Gothic and Romanesque styles beneath a triumphant statue of St
Michael the Archangel slaying a dragon (13th century). 'For the first time I now saw what medieval builders were and what
they meant,' was the reaction of John Ruskin. The adjoining bell tower is the highest in Lucca. The façade is a hard ad to follow (and
the medieval builders ran low on funds) so the interior is less impressive. In one corner is a Madonna and Child by sculptor Matteo
Civitali (it was once part of the façade). There is a glazed terracotta Madonna and Child attributed to Andrea della Robbia and a crucifix
by Berlinghieri from the end of the 12th century. However, the real highlight is the luminous panel by Filippino Lippi,
son of the more famous Filippo.
San Frediano (n° 8 on the map)
The oldest church in Lucca was named after the Irish saint and Lucca's
first bishop, Fredianus. The mosaic façade, a kaleidoscopic Ascension of Christ, is by the picturesquely named Berlinghiero Berlinghiera. The
church faces the wrong direction, east, because it was built next to a city wall. Inside, it is a monumental basilica with some of the capitals
recycled from the nearby Roman amphitheatre. The single most impressive object is the Romanesque Fonta Lustra
near the front, a baptismal font upon which an anonymous artist sculpted Moses crossing the Red Sea, pursued by Egyptians in medieval
armour. There is another baptismal font, still in use, carved by Matteo Civitali in 1489. The Cappella Trenta has an altar by Jacopo della
Quercia. In the left nave, frescos by Amico Aspertini depict the arrivaI of the Volto Santo in Lucca.
The unmissable right-hand chapel is one of the most popular places to pray in Lucca - in the presence of the mummified St Zita. She
accepted that bending the rules is all in a saintly day's work. A servant
born in 1218, she stole bread on the job to give it to the poor and lied about it when caught in the act. But the lie became truth when the
scraps of bread miraculously tumed into roses.
San Giovanni e Reparata (n° 2 on the map)
Few basilicas in Tuscany bave a longer tale to tell than this
one, from Roman times to the Middle Ages. It is a surreal experience to wander
among the bits and pieces of Roman baths, pillars, mosaics and shops (180-100 BC) beneath the
floor of the present church and then to re-emerge into natural light and look up at the baroque coffered ceiling.
The stones are a vast puzzle, presented in a meticulous multicoloured map that the guardian will sell or loan
out. The church dome was built in 1390 and represents a brave attempt to
solve the problem of supporting such a structure, using a circle on top of a square.
Brunelleschi studied it before beginning work on the cathedral in Florence.
Via Fillungo (n° 5 on the map)
This narrow street is lined with medieval palaces and towers and shops
with fin de siècle or art-nouveau façades: the jeweller Chioccetti (No 20); the shoe stare graced with sexy art-deco nudes dating from the
time when it was the Profumeria Venus (No 65); Puccini's favourite place to chain-smoke, the Caffè di Simo (No 58); Carli (No 95), in
business since 1655 selling jewellery, ancient coins and antique watches; and the jeweller Pellegrino (No 111). There is also a small art-
nouveau passage (No 102).
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