LUCCA

Famous for its monuments and especially for the sixteenth-century walls, it is one of the most beautiful cities of art in Italy. Of Roman origin, the city grew considerably in the Middle Ages as it was an important stop for pilgrims who walked the Via Francigena.

 

MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF INTEREST

Lucca preserves an intact Renaissance city wall, built between the XV-XVII century, expanding the medieval circle.

Starting from the second half of the nineteenth century, the tree-lined pedestrian promenade, just over 4 km long, was built on the walls, which still exists today and can be traveled on foot or by bicycle in its entirety.

THE CHURCHES

The Cathedral of San Martino

Around the middle of the 11th century, Bishop Anselmo da Baggio, later pope with the name of Alexander II, began the reconstruction, on the oldest cathedral of Santa Reparata, of the Cathedral dedicated to San Martino. In it is preserved, enclosed in an octagonal chapel by the sculptor Matteo Civitali, the Holy Face or Santa Croce, symbol of the city. The statue represents Christ alive on the cross with a long robe of oriental style.

National museums    (http://www.luccamuseinazionali.it/)

The national museum of Villa Guinigi is the true museum of the city, thanks to one of the richest and most interesting collections of works of art produced for Lucca thanks to ecclesiastical and secular patrons. The main nucleus of the collection dates back to the claims of ecclesiastical goods subsequent to the unification of Italy.

The national museum of Palazzo Mansi is an example of the dwellings of the Lucca merchants. Transformed at the end of the seventeenth century by the owner family into a “palace of representation”, it was set up according to the prevailing Baroque taste. Among other things, it preserves an interesting collection of paintings and sculptures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and a precious collection of textile products.

 

The LIBERTY Villas

VILLA DEL MAGRO

The villa is part of the first building development outside the walled city in direct connection with the southern part of the walls. It was designed by the same client, Daniele Del Magro, who built it as his own home in 1912. The building, inserted in a garden of vast proportions, has majolica panels on the facade, between the windows, with flying ducks by Galileo Chini.

 

MODERN ARCHITECTURE

There are many modern buildings in the city, among these we remember the U.S.L. building, built in 1934 in via A. Marti, that, with its composition of elementary volumes around the central body, represents a significant example of the Italian Rationalism of the Lucca area; and the House of the mutilated, seat of the National Association of the mutilated and disabled of war, born in 1917, a neo-historicist building built in Piazza San Michele on a project by the architect Italo Baccelli in 1929, for the construction of which, part of the medieval buildings of the square were demolished.