The Museums of Lucca

The Roman Domus House of the Child on the Dolphin

Lucca was an important Latin colony, strategic for the defense of the empire from the Nordic populations.

La Roman Domus House of the Child on the Dolphin It is a small archaeological site from the 1st century BC in the city center. At the time of its construction, the city was several meters lower, and so, in the current cellars, a dwelling was discovered that must have once overlooked one of the main streets. From the entrance hall to the building, you enter the Renaissance cellars, a highly evocative atmosphere.

The site offers a reconstruction of the original rooms of the domus, as well as significant architectural remains and artifacts from the Lombard, medieval, and Renaissance periods, including everyday objects and votive offerings, brooches, coins, and terracotta pottery. Savoring dishes and drinks based on ancient Roman recipes, in a genuine Roman home, is just one of the experiences available in this small but vibrant museum.

INFO: www.domusromanalucca.it

Diocesan Historical Archive

Thanks to its strategic location and political importance, the city became a transit and meeting point for various peoples as early as the Early Middle Ages, contributing to its cultural and monumental richness. The city's squares are dotted with large churches that bear witness to the city's multiculturalism.

L'Diocesan Historical Archives It collects documentary collections from parishes and private individuals, including five diplomatic collections, for a total of over 13.000 parchments from the year 685 onwards, of which 1.800 documents date back to before the year 1000 and 156 parchments from the Lombard period, half of the existing heritage, the largest collection in the world in terms of antiquity and consistency, included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Ancient Mint of Lucca

Another important and very ancient collection is found Ancient Mint of Lucca From the Lombard era until the mid-19th century, it produced over two thousand types of coins. From 650, gold tremissis, grossi with the image of the Holy Face, and then soldi, denari, and quattrini—this long-running workshop minted coins for all of Europe for approximately twelve centuries.

In addition to the coins, it will be interesting to see the two dies, manual and mechanical, in action, operated by the Mint's coin collection, in the Museum rooms, above the City Walls.

Cathedral Museum

Al Cathedral Museum You can discover the rich artistic heritage of the Cathedral of San Martino. Eight rooms house choir books and illuminated manuscripts, sculptures, paintings, goldsmith's work, and fine fabrics. The "Pisan Cross," a masterpiece of 15th-century goldsmithing, and the Treasure with the Jewels of the Holy Face, the wooden crucifix symbolizing the city, housed in the nearby cathedral, are particularly treasured by the people of Lucca.

The "treasure" with which he is "dressed" on the feast of the Holy Cross, May 3rd and September 14th, is a true masterpiece of goldsmithing. The trousseau includes the crown, the collar, the sashes of the robe, and the diamond jewel, all crafted by the French goldsmiths of the court of the Sun King.

Museum of the Risorgimento

Two brief but intense moments in the city's history are narrated in the displays of two small but equally well-preserved museums in the Palazzo Ducale.

With the help of immersive videos, historical objects and time projections, the Museum of the Risorgimento It briefly recounts Lucca's experience during this historical period and the stories of the events and figures who contributed to the founding processes of our national history.

Paolo Cresci Museum for the History of Italian Emigration

In the chapel of Santa Maria della Misericordia in the Doge's Palace, the Paolo Cresci Museum for the History of Italian Emigration It is one of the richest existing collections of documents on Italian emigration.

Letters, diaries, documents, and photographs from everyday life document the migrants' journey, from departure to travel and the search for work in their new host city.

The documents exhibited in the small museum accompany visitors through the history of the city, which is the history of all of Italy, and invite reflection on the themes of "diversity" and "identity," acceptance and tolerance, enriching their own experience also through interaction with different cultures.

The exhibition is a multimedia experience created with the help of historical footage, sequences from famous films, and interviews with the protagonists.

Palazzo Mansi - the art of silk

An "art" inseparable from the city's history is the art of silk. Precious tapestries, garments, and decorations.

The visit of National Museum of Palazzo Mansi It's a double discovery. Besides the art gallery, the palace itself, an 700th-century aristocratic residence, is worth a visit.

The layout of the rooms, the furnishings, and the tapestries, rich in local and Northern European craftsmanship, testify to the wealth and commercial and political role played by this small city during the period of maximum flourishing of the silk art since the late Middle Ages.

The art of weaving is a recurring theme throughout the palace, in various forms. A rustic weaving workshop, a textile restoration workshop, and a collection of clothing from the family's rich wardrobes—men's and women's, civilian and official, noble and servant (from the 700th century to the present day)—as well as ecclesiastical vestments, tapestries, secular and liturgical linens, and the rich and precious tapestries on the main floor make the palace a key place to learn about this important episode in the city's history.

The bridal alcove is undoubtedly the most famous room in the opulent residence, with its gilded wood paneling and gold-colored flamed tapestries embroidered with flowers and birds worthy of a small palace. The beautiful Lucida Mansi slept in the four-poster bed, the subject of a tangled legend involving some of the city's most iconic landmarks: the lake now within the walls of the Botanical Garden, the Torre delle Ore, and the Renaissance Walls.
A few centuries later, Alberto Sordi was buried here, playing the Marquis of Grillo, the very famous film shot in Lucca in 1981 by the great director Mario Monicelli.

Villa Guinigi - the painting

In the halls of the National Museum of Villa Guinigi, an imposing late Gothic building, which was the home of Paolo Guinigi, lord of Lucca from 1400 to 1430, the artistic history of the city is retraced: from the artefacts of the archaeological collection of the 8th century BC to the great paintings of the 18th century.
One of the richest and most interesting collections of works produced for Lucca by artists from Lucca and abroad for ecclesiastical and secular commissions.

Ragghianti Foundation - Contemporary Art

Art lovers shouldn't be daunted by the imposing facades of medieval churches or the imposing Renaissance walls. The fascination with art is deeply rooted in this small town.
Over 70.000 volumes and approximately 800 magazine titles, degree theses, various archives and a collection of over 36.000 art brochures and catalogues, 180.000 images including photographs and clippings and a collection of graphic works, paintings, drawings and sculptures, the result of donations from important contemporary Italian artists are the corpus of the Licia and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti Foundation.

The sculptures are displayed in the cloisters of the Monumental Complex of San Micheletto, home to the Foundation. The complex hosts major exhibitions and workshops on local and international art, making it a must-see if you're planning a vacation or are already in Lucca.

Puccini Museum

Of all the arts, music is undoubtedly the one that best defines the city's character. Lucca is the birthplace of international musicians and the adopted city of others who have chosen to live here from around the world. Lucca's musical tradition is still alive and well, and the concert offerings of various musical genres are extensive.

A visit to the city of music cannot but begin at the Puccini Museum, Giacomo Puccini's birthplace, a small apartment in Lucca's historic center that, after reopening in 2015, is becoming one of the must-see places to explore the city.
Concerts, workshops, and themed tours enrich the experience and introduce you to the world of Opera.

The Botanical Garden and Bicchi Museum

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi

had agreed to the foundation of a Botanical Garden and the allocation of the funds necessary for its maintenance, but it was Maria Luisa of Bourbon, after the fall of the Napoleonic Empire a few years later, who handed over to the Royal Lyceum the plot of land of approximately two hectares to create the Garden.

Seeds and plants arrived from the royal villa of Marlia where they had arrived directly from the French collections, from the nearby Botanical Gardens noble trees such as the Cedar of Lebanon, the patriarch of the garden, planted in 1822.

Much of its current appearance is due to Cesare Bicchi, who looked after the Botanical Garden of Lucca at the end of the 800th century:

the formation of the most conspicuous part of the herbarium and the botanical school an important collection of more than 450 medicinal plants, cinchona, Eritrean incense, ginger, turmeric, gallic rose, gentians and many others among the most used in various countries of the world;

the arboretum where you can stroll among sequoias, yews, wollemias, beeches and 200 other different species of trees from all over the world;

the lake dominated by the bald cypress and the legend of the beautiful Lucida Mansi who died drowning in its waters, which were later joined by the mound with typical Mediterranean scrub species and a rich collection of edible "herbs", traditional in local cuisine;

the collection of camellias and rhododendrons that at that time embellished the parks of the aristocratic villas;

The heated greenhouses for the inevitable botanical wonders, exotic plants and flowers that were circulating in abundance from around the world at that time, changing the habits of Europeans. Coffee, tea, and chocolate were a must-have on aristocratic tables and in botanical gardens throughout Europe.

The Botanical Garden also offers two multisensory trails, one through the trees and the other through the botanical school, dedicated to blind and visually impaired visitors and to those who wish to deepen their sensitivity through touch, taste, smell, and hearing.

Natural History Cabinet

Minerals, fossils and shells, insects and birds… mummies

and Egyptian finds and the atmosphere of a Wunderkammer (from the German 'chamber of wonders', an ancient exhibition method inspired by eclecticism and a taste for the marvelous) from the early nineteenth century to the Cabinet of Natural History which keeps alive the city's tradition of scientific studies which received great impetus with the Garnducato of Tuscany.

In the frescoed rooms of Palazzo Lucchesini, a museum within a museum with "vintage" displays

The collection has maintained the original layout of the original finds and subsequent donations, including that of the Lucca-born explorer Carlo Piaggia, a key figure in important geographical and ethnographic discoveries, and the Mezzetti herbarium, donated to the Cabinet of Natural History by the author. Twenty volumes packed with annotations on over 1500 plant specimens, mostly from the 19th-century Lucca area, some of which are now extinct.

The museum also embodies the fascination and wonder of times gone by, along with the curiosity to discover objects with the strangest names in the display cases: rare shells from all over the world, the largest collection of stuffed birds in Italy (3000 specimens), from the robin to the black stork, the fossil of a ten-meter-long fish, dioramas depicting the metamorphosis of the silkworm (Bombyx mori), and even a platypus!

Barsanti Matteucci Internal Combustion Engine Museum

Always nineteenth-century Barsanti and Matteucci Internal Combustion Engine Museum, housed in the rooms of the fifteenth-century Guinigi lodges.

An exhibition dedicated to the works and lives of the two Lucca-born scientists who invented the revolutionary engine. It's the only exhibition in the world that accurately reconstructs the studies and progress of Barsanti and Matteucci: from their life stories to the accolades they received for their ingenuity, to the documents Barsanti brought with him to Paris—patents, drawings, and anything else that might have helped him claim, sadly to no avail, the paternity of the invention.

At the heart of the exhibition are scale reproductions of the four compressed-air engine models designed by the two scientists from Lucca, along with a summary of documents documenting the birth and evolution of their research between December 1851, the date of their first meeting, and March 25, 1864, the day the Bauer engine was put into operation at the John Cockeril Company headquarters in Seraing, near Liège, Belgium.