Lucca, the city of a hundred churches. Within its Renaissance walls lies a rich heritage of religious architecture, small oratories, private chapels of noble palaces, and large churches, a rich architectural and artistic heritage.
Three large churches in Lucca's historic center tell the story of the city's Middle Ages, a period far from dark, but rich and fruitful for the city's history, economy, and culture, marked by great movements of people and cultures.
The Lombards and then the Carolingians, the Goths from the north and the east, those monks who, according to legend, brought with them the small silkworms that would produce the silk and the fortune of Lucca and that would produce an original and rich culture summarized as in an illustrated story on the facades of the churches.
The Lombard-inspired Romanesque architecture of the Church of San Michele and the Cathedral of San Martino echoes every known time and place. Among the oriental colonnades and Nordic decorations, some admire the warp and weft patterns woven by Lucca's famous weavers: brocades, damasks, and flamed fabrics.
It stands on the spot where the city itself arose: the forum of the Roman city, from which the cardo and the decumanus maximus originated, the streets that organized the fabric of the city and which still survive in the layout of the streets on the southern side and behind the church.
Contemporaneous with the church of San Martino, the church of San Michele has a more harmonious design, cultured proportions, and erudite references in the forms and decorations.
The façade is a succession of inlays, bas-reliefs, and sculptures, featuring numerous Christian and pre-Christian symbols, Masonic symbols, and esoteric and scientific symbols. Animals and plants, human beings, historical and mythological, nonchalant sirens, sagittariuses, and griffins. At the summit, between two angels, stands the large statue of Saint Michael, Saint, Archangel, and warrior, in the act of slaying the Dragon.
One is struck, as happened to the poet Ruskin during his visit to Lucca, to see them together with the portraits of Count Cavour, the Supreme Poet Dante and other modern figures placed at the top of the columns during the first nineteenth-century restoration.
On the south side, medieval graffiti of ships and Eastern cities testify to the square's use as a market. It's worthwhile to spend some time exploring.
The pilgrims' journey, the work in the fields, the trade that would carry the name of Lucca throughout the future Europe.
Images of everyday life are the subjects of the rich iconographic apparatus of the design of the Cathedral of San Martino.
The church is dedicated to that Saint Martin of Tours, very famous for the episode of the cloak shared with the poor man, depicted on the façade with a large equestrian sculpture which until the 600th century was decorated to celebrate the name day and the “summer of Saint Martin” (11 November).
The church's façade is a version of the more complex San Michele, with evident asymmetries, intersecting volumes, and contrasting solids and voids. In one corner, among the many depictions, is a "portrait" of the architect Guido, who carried out the 14th-century renovation.
Easier to spot is the mystical labyrinth carved into the façade, a profession of faith and a reminder of the passage of the many pilgrims on their way to Rome.
The interior is a precious treasure chest, guarding what is most dear to the people of Lucca: the Holy Face, the crucifix carved from wood that miraculously arrived in Lucca centuries ago. A devotional icon, a miraculous image, a place of pilgrimage, a symbol and protector of the people of Lucca wherever they are in the world, it is the most highly revered object of devotion. The Luminara procession is held in its honor every September, in which all the people of Lucca "Drento e Fora" have always participated.
He is accompanied by the beautiful Ilaria del Carretto. The sarcophagus, sculpted in the early 400s by Jacopo della Quercia, is currently preserved in the sacristy. It is a tribute to her husband, Paolo Guinigi, lord of the city in the 400s, on the occasion of his untimely death.
Sober and imposing, with oriental references in the basilica plan and in the large mosaic that adorns the façade: the bell tower with Guelph battlements acts as a backdrop.
The Basilica of San Frediano is the most austere and tied to tradition.
The elegant and bright interior is the custodian of the cult of Saint Frediano. The stories of the saint's life recount his ability to master matter: he moved rivers and enormous stones with the power of his words alone. The river is the Serchio, and the episode is illustrated in the Aspertini Chapel, near the side door on the left. The stone is the large altar, currently leaning against the wall beside the high altar.
At the entrance to the church stands the beautiful Romanesque baptismal font. A large basin decorated by two different artists with scenes from the life of Moses, one after the other, unfolds in a vivid and rapid narrative. More sedate and mysterious are the figures that occupy the ordered space of an architecture in which some read the symbols of the planets, others those of the virtues. At the center is the cup and lid with representations of the months of the year and the apostles.
In the nearby chapel, you can visit Saint Zita, the little Saint of Flowers, who lived in Lucca in the 13th century and was cited by Dante in the Divine Comedy as an example of the welcoming and generous Lucca. Her body has been miraculously preserved and is kept in a shrine.
Along the walls, the story of the Saint's life and numerous miracles are depicted. The most famous, in which her faith transformed bread into flowers, is the inspiration behind the celebrations in her honor on April 27th: a large flower market in the nearby Piazza Anfiteatro and floral displays throughout Lucca's squares.