Lucca

 

(lūk'kä) , city (1991 pop. 87,100), capital of Lucca prov., Tuscany, N central Italy, near the Ligurian Sea. It is a commercial and industrial center and an agricultural market (olive oil, wine, and tobacco). Manufactures include textiles (especially silk), paper, and food products. A Ligurian settlement, later a Roman town, Lucca became (6th cent.) the capital of a Lombard duchy and (12th cent.) a free commune, which soon developed into a republic. In spite of ruthless strife between Guelphs and Ghibellines and frequent wars (especially with Pisa and Florence) the city prospered. Its bankers and merchants were noted throughout Europe, as were its velvets and damasks. The arts also flourished after the 12th cent.; Lucchese sculpture reached its zenith in the 15th cent. with Matteo Civitali, whose fine works adorn the cathedral. Numerous churches, showing Pisan influence, were built from the 12th to the 14th cent. Save for short periods of rule by foreign powers and by tyrants (notably, Castruccio Castracani), Lucca remained an independent republic until Napoleon I made it a principality (1805) for his brother-in-law, Felice Baciocchi, and his sister Elisa. In 1817, Lucca became part of the duchy of Parma and in 1847 of the grand duchy of Tuscany; in 1860 it was annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia. The cathedral (11th–15th cent.) and the churches of San Frediano (begun in the 6th cent.) and San Michele (12th cent.) have fine marble facades. The city's ramparts (16th–17th cent.) are also notable.

Comune di Lucca
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Tuscany
Province	Lucca (LU)
Mayor	Mauro Favilla (since June, 11th 2007)
Elevation	m ( ft)
Area	km² ( sq mi)
Population (as of 2006)
- Total
- Density	/km² (/sq mi)
Time zone	CET, [[UTC+1]]
Coordinates	43°51′N, 10°30′E
Gentilic	Lucchesi
Dialing code	0583
Postal code	55110
Frazioni	see list
Patron	St. Paulinus
- Day	July 12
Location of Lucca in Italy
Website: www.comune.lucca.it

Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near (but not on) the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca. Among other reasons, it is famous for being perhaps the largest Italian city with its medieval city wall still entirely intact (though the city has expanded well past the original wall boundaries).

History

Ancient and medieval 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 San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre can still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.

Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early 5th century.^[1] At one point, Lucca was plundered by Odoacer, the first Germanic King of Italy. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses besieged it for several months in 553. Under the Lombards, it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. The Holy Face of Lucca (or Volto Santo), a major relic supposedly carved by Nicodemus, arrived in 742. It became prosperous through the silk trade that began in the 11th century, and came to rival the silks of Byzantium. During the 10-11th 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 Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter in 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic. There were many minor provinces 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 includes many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante spent some of his exile in Lucca.

In 1314, internal discord allowed Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa to make himself lord of Lucca. The Lucchesi expelled him two years later, and handed over the city to another condottiere Castruccio Castracani, under whose rule it became a leading state in central Italy. Lucca rivalled Florence until Castracani's death in 1328. On 22 and 23 September 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Castracani defeated Florence's Guelphs. For this he was nominated by Louis IV the Bavarian to become duke of Lucca. Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule.

In 1408, Lucca hosted the convocation 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, then 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, and then 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 until the French Revolution in 1789.^[2].

Republic of Lucca

Lucca was the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries. In 1805 Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who put his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in charge as "Queen of Etruria". This affair is commemorated in the famous first sentence of Tolstoy's War and Peace:

"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes.(...) And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan, the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions [to be annexed to France] before Monsieur Buonaparte, and Monsieur Buonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations?" (spoken by a thoroughly anti-Bonapartist Russian aristocrat, soon after the news reached St. Petersburg).

After 1815 it became a Bourbon-Parma duchy, then part of Tuscany in 1847 and finally part of the Italian State.

Frazioni

The municipal territory Lucca includes eighty-one "fractions": Antraccoli, Aquilea, 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 Gimignano, 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.

Main sights

The walls around the old town remained intact as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which encircled 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 dell'Anfiteatro
• Piazza Napoleone
• Piazza San Michele
• Duomo di San Martino (St Martin's Cathedral)
• The Ducal Palace (The original project was begun by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1577-1582, and continued by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century.)
• The ancient Roman amphitheatre
• Church of San Michele in Foro
• Basilica di San Frediano
• Torre delle ore ("The Clock Tower")
• Casa and Torre Guinigi
• Museo Nazionale Guinigi
• Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale
• Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca, a botanical garden dating from 1820
• Palazzo Pfanner
• Church of San Giorgio in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late 12th century. It has a nave and two aisles with a single apse, and a bell tower in Lombard-Romanesque style ranked amongst the most beautiful in northern Italy. The interior houses a massive ambo (1194) with four columns mounted on notable sculptures of lions. Also having notable medieval decoration is the octagonal baptismal font. The altar is supported by six small columns with human figures.

Recommended sights and accommodation

• Montecarlo

Culture

Lucca is the birthplace of composers Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, Giacomo Puccini and Alfredo Catalani.

Lucca annually hosts the Lucca Summer Festival. The 2006 edition saw Eric Clapton, Placebo, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman and Santana play live in the Piazza Napoleone.

See also

• Castruccio Castracani
• Duchy of Lucca

Twin towns

• Abingdon, United Kingdom
• Colmar, France
• Golgolin, Poland
• Schongau, Germany
• Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
• Buenos Aires, Argentina

Famous Figures

• Saint Frediano
• Pope Lucius III
• Saint Zita
• Castruccio Castracani, ruler of Lucca (1316-1328)
• Matteo Civitali, sculptor
• Pompeo Batoni, painter
• Francesco Geminiani, musician and composer
• Elisa Bonaparte, ruler of Lucca
• Luigi Boccherini, musician and composer
• Antonio Vallisneri, scientist and physician
• Alfredo Catalani, composer
• Felice Matteucci, engineer
• Giacomo Puccini, composer
• Gioseffo Guami, composer
• Gemma Galgani, saint
• Marcello Pera, politician
• Mario Cipollini, athlete
• Renato Salvatori, actor
• Giuseppe Ungaretti, poet
• Marco Rossi, athlete

Footnotes

External links

• Official site
• History of Lucca
• The mountains near Lucca
• The Noble of Lucca
• Lucca General Information
• Panoramic view of the walls of Lucca
• Lucca Summer Festival official website
• Tourist Site about Lucca

Tuscany · Comuni of the Province of Lucca
	Altopascio · Bagni di Lucca · Barga · Borgo a Mozzano · Camaiore · Camporgiano · Capannori · Careggine · Castelnuovo di Garfagnana · Castiglione di Garfagnana · Coreglia Antelminelli · Fabbriche di Vallico · Forte dei Marmi · Fosciandora · Gallicano · Giuncugnano · Lucca · Massarosa · Minucciano · Molazzana · Montecarlo · Pescaglia · Piazza al Serchio · Pietrasanta · Pieve Fosciana · Porcari · San Romano in Garfagnana · Seravezza · Sillano · Stazzema · Vagli Sotto · Vergemoli · Viareggio · Villa Basilica · Villa Collemandina

eml:Loccapms:Luca

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