Lucca
« Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life » - Anna Akhmatova
Activities
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Aqueduct of Nottolini, Lucca
Just outside the walled city of Lucca, this vast neoclassical 19-th century aqueduct brought water from the mountains in the South.
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Chiesa di San Michele in Foro, Lucca
This stunning edifice with its massive, ornate facade was built on the former site of Lucca’s Roman forum. It took over 300 years to build from the 11th-century onwards, replacing a former edifice that dated back to the 8th-century.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria Forisportam, Lucca
The Church of Santa Maria Forisportam, which is also known as Santa Maria Bianca, is a Romanesque-style, Catholic church, which dates back to the 12th century on Piazza Santa Maria Bianca in Lucca. It has a small monastery and cloister attached to it.
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Guinigi Tower, Lucca
You can climb this tower which is 45 metres high, with 232 steps to reach the top. It dates back to the early 14th-century when wealthy families attached bell towers to their palazzos as status symbols. It is one of the few remaining towers within the walls of Lucca.
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Il Duomo, San Martino Cathedral, Lucca
Dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours in Lucca, the construction of this Roman Catholic church began in 1063. The front - a vast portico with three arches - dates back to 1204. Above you will see three tiers of open galleries with sculptures in each one.
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Palazzo Pfanner, Lucca
An elegant, privately-owned Baroque Palazzo which dates back to 1667 when it was built for the Moroconi family. The house and its gardens are not far from the city walls on one side, and the medieval streets of the city on the other.
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Piazza Napoleone, Lucca
Known by locals as the Piazza Grande because it’s the largest square and is in the centre of town, the square dates back to1322, when Castruccio Castracanni from the Antelminelli family, decided to build the Augusta Fortress and a palace, which were later demolished when the Castracani family was deposed in 1370.
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Piazza dell' Anfiteatro, Lucca
The ring of buildings surrounding the piazza follows the elliptical shape of the former second-century Roman amphitheater of Lucca on which today's square is built.
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Porta San Donato, Lucca
This gateway is one of the original four medieval gates of the city. It dates back to the 13th-century. By 1354 it was equipped with a drawbridge. It was sealed in 1428 but reopened in the following decades. It is flanked by a machicolated tower and there are some pretty frescoes inside. Today there are six entrances to the city.
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San Benedetto in Gottella, Lucca
A Romanesque-style church, on the Piazza Bernardin, the previous church here dated back to the 10th-century but was reconstructed in the 13th-century. The walls include parts of the earlier church. The facade is striped with contrasting white limestone and darker tan sandstones, with blocks of different sizes. There is a pretty rounded portal entry.
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San Cristoforo, Lucca
There is very little information about this pretty church, except that it dates back to the 11th-century and was rebuilt in the mid-12th century.
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San Francesco, Lucca
Members of the Franciscan's order used the site as early as 1228, but the church as we see it today dates from the 14th-century. Built from brick, with a facade of large white and grey limestone ashlars arranged in horizontal and parallel lines, the church does not have an aisle and has a trussed roof. It has a monastery complex around it.
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San Frediano Basilica, Lucca
Dating back to 685 AD, this church has a limestone facade with a beautiful Byzantine-style mosaic which was added in the 13th-century. The stunning interior is pretty well the same as it was in the Middle Ages, with a medieval painting in the Basilica and a polyptych (panel painting), by Jacopo Della Quercia, as well as a 12th-century baptismal font.
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The Ramparts, or walls of Lucca
Today this is one of the most popular places to walk in Lucca, but in the past, the walls and ramparts were key to keeping intruders at bay.
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Via Fillungo, Lucca
This is the busiest street of Lucca running north to south of the walled city. It still has the original stone flags, and the buildings on either side - like the entire city of Lucca - have not changed greatly since the 17th-century. Most of it is pedestrianised and you can find almost everything from expensive clothes, shoes and jewelry to food, bars and restaurants.
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Villa Mansi and museum, Lucca
This fabulous Baroque palace is the former home of the Mansi family, a rich family of textile merchants who built it in 1616 but eventually donated it to the city in 1965. Many of the interior decoration and furnishings remain in place, giving you a fascinating insight into how the rich in Lucca lived at that time.
