In the Codex n° 49 of the 8thcentury Chapter Library, a number of buildings, scattered throughout the diocese of Lucca, are recorded:"among them San Salvatore in Vaccoli is cited".
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It is worth wandering through the streets of the old part of the village, among pots of geraniums and cats resting in the sun, to discover this small fragment of history. The church was restored precisely by the residents in 2007: it is a small oratory inside of the town, included in the urban fabric.
The wall structure is partly made of drafts of white limestone from the nearby quarries of Santa Maria del Giudice, partly mixed in bricks and stones and is still intact on the outside in the apse.
The church of San Salvatore (Saint Saviour's) was born as Oratory has a single hall plan, with a slightly protruding canonically oriented apse.
A small gable bell tower rises on the façade.
In the center of the façade the door is slightly off-axis from the oculus that opens at the top. In the stained-glass lunette there is an image of Christ depicted according to traditional iconography.
Inside, the hall presents a ceiling with wooden trusses, beams, joists and mizzens.
The presbitery is raised from the ground by two steps, with a marble high altar, and the apsidal basin is decorated with gold painting.
Itinera Romanica (Romanesque itineraries)
Today the church is an important stop along one of the many Romanesque itineraries that characterize the Upper Tyrrhenian area between Italy and France.
Naturalistic, historical and cultural routes passing through small hillside villages and rural environments along paths and ancient tracks, where minor religious architecture such as churches, basilicas, parish churches and chapels are encountered, are worthy of being rediscovered and valorised.
The church of San Salvatore is mentioned for the first time in a Codex of the Capitular Library of Lucca dating back to the 8th century. A document from 1093 shows that the church was owned by the monastery of San Ponziano of Lucca.
No further information is available on the history of the building. In recent years the church was restored by parishioners, who restored it to its original appearance, typical of the minor Romanesque style. It has a single hall plan, with a slightly projecting apse, arranged along an east-west axis. The masonry texture is, partly, made of mixed bricks and stones, partly (particularly outside the apse) of squared blocks of limestone, coming from the nearby quarries of Santa Maria del Giudice.