Lucca
Lucca is a city in
Tuscany, northern central
Italy, situated on the river
Serchio in a fertile plain near (but not on) the
Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the
Province of Lucca.
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The narrow streets of Lucca, seen from a tower in the town. |
Ancient and Middle Ages city
Lucca was founded by the
Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing
Ligurian settlement) and became a
Roman colony in
180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical center preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza S. Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum.
Plundered by
Odoacer, Lucca appears as an important city and fortress at the time of Narses, who besieged it for three months in
553, and under the
Lombards it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. It became prosperous through the
silk trade that got a start in the 11th century, to rival the silks of Byzantium. In the 10th and 11th centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal margravate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the
Holy Roman Emperor.
After the death of the famous
Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter of
1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca was an independent republic. There were many minor feudatories in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe.
Dante’s
Divine Comedy include many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante himself spent some of his exile in Lucca.
In the common central Italian pattern, internal discord afforded an opportunity in 1314 to Uguccione della Faggiuola to make himself master of Lucca, but the Lucchesi expelled him two years afterwards, and handed over their city to the
condottiere Castruccio Castracani, under whose masterly tyranny it became for a moment a leading state of central Italy, rival to
Florence, until his death in
1328.
On
22 and
23 September 1325, in the
battle of Altopascio, he defeated again
Florence's
Guelphs, taking many prisoners and also for this he was nominated, always from
Louis IV the Bavarian, duke of Lucca.
Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is
Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule.
Lucca was the seat of a convocation in
1408 that was intended to end the schism in the papacy. Occupied by the troops of Louis of Bavaria, the city was sold to a rich Genoese Gherardino Spinola, seized by John, king of Bohemia. Pawned to the Rossi of Parma, by them it was ceded to
Martino della Scala of
Verona, sold to the Florentines, surrendered to the Pisans, nominally liberated by the emperor
Charles IV. and governed by his vicar, Lucca managed, at first as a democracy, and after
1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain its independence alongside of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word Libertas on its banner till the French Revolution" (
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911).
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Duomo di San Martino (Cathedral) |
Republic of Lucca
Lucca was the largest Italian city state with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries - next to
Venice, of course. In
1805 Lucca was taken over by
Napoleon, who put his sister
Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in charge as "Queen of Etruria". After
1815 it became a
Bourbon-Parma duchy, then part of
Tuscany in
1847 and finally part of the
Italian State. Lucca is twinned with the English market town of Abingdon, near Oxford.
See also
*
Castruccio Castracani*
Duchy of LuccaLucca is divided in 81 fractions:Antraccoli, Aquileia, Arancio, Arliano, Arsina, Balbano, Cappella, Carignano, Castagnori, Castiglioncello, Cerasomma, Chiatri, Ciciana, Deccio di Brancoli, Fagnano, Farneta, Gattaiola, Gignano di Brancoli, Maggiano, Massa Pisana, Mastiano, Meati, Monte San Quirico, Montuolo, Mutigliano, Mugnano, Nave, Nozzano, Nozzano San Pietro, Nozzano Vecchia, Ombreglio di Brancoli, Palmata, Piaggione, Piazza di Brancoli, Piazzano, Picciorana, Pieve di Brancoli, Pieve Santo Stefano, Ponte a Moriano, Ponte del Giglio, Ponte San Pietro, Pontetetto, Saltocchio, San Cassiano a Vico, San Cassano di Moriano, San Concordio di Moriano, San Donato, San Filippo, San Gemegnano, San Giusto di Brancoli, San Lorenzo a Vaccoli, San Lorenzo di Moriano, San Macario in monte, San Macario in piano, San Michele di Moriano, San Michele in Escheto, San Pancazio, San Pietro a Vico, San Quirico in Moriano, San Vito, Sant'Alessio, Sant'Angelo in Campo, Sant'Ilario di Brancoli, Santa Maria a Colle, Santa Maria del Giudice, Santissima Annunziata, Santo Stefano di Moriano, Sesto di Moriano, Sorbano del Giudice, Sorbano del Vescovo, Stabbiano, Tempagnano di Lunata, Torre, Torre alla Maddalena, Torre Alta, Tramonte, Tramonte di Brancoli, Vallebuia, Vecoli, Vicopelago, Vinchiana
Unusually for cities in the region, the walls around the old town were retained intact as the city expanded and modernized. As the wide walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade ringing the old town although they were used for a number of years in the 20th century for racing cars. They are still fully intact today; each of the four principal sides is lined with a different tree species.
The academy of sciences (1584) is the most famous of several academies and libraries.
The Casa di Puccini is open to the public. At nearby
Torre del Lago there is a Puccini opera festival every year in July/August. Puccini had a house there.
There are many richly built medieval basilica-form churches in Lucca with rich arcaded facades and campaniles, a few as old as the 8th century.
*Piazza Napoleone
*Piazza San Michele
*
Duomo di San Martino*
Ducal Palace*The ancient Roman
amphitheatre*Chiesa di San Michele in Foro
*
Basilica di San Frediano*
Torre delle ore ("Clock Tower")
*Casa and
Torre Guinigi*Museo nazionale Guinigi
*Museo e pinacoteca nazionale
Lucca is the birthplace of composers
Francesco Geminiani,
Gioseffo Guami,
Luigi Boccherini,
Giacomo Puccini and
Alfredo Catalani.
Lucca hosts the Lucca Summer Festival each year which, in July 2006, saw the likes of Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman and Santana play live in the Piazza Napolean.
*
Comune di Lucca (Official page)*
Photographs of Lucca*
The mountains near Lucca
