Lucca
—  Comune  —
Comune di Lucca
Panorama of Lucca from the Torre Guinigi
Coat of arms
Lucca Location of Lucca in Italy
Coordinates: 43°51′N 10°30′E / 43.85°N 10.5°E / 43.85; 10.5
Country	Italy
Region	Tuscany
Province	Lucca (LU)
Frazioni	see list
Government
• Mayor	Alessandro Tambellini (PD)
Area
• Total	185.5 km2 (71.6 sq mi)
Elevation	19 m (62 ft)
Population (30 April 2009)
• Total	84,323
• Density	450/km2 (1,200/sq mi)
Demonym	Lucchese (plural, Lucchesi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	55100
Dialing code	0583
Patron saint	St. Paulinus
Saint day	July 12
Website	Official website

Lucca  listen (help·info) is a city and comune in Tuscany, the north-west of Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca. Among other reasons, it is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls.

History[link]

Ancient and medieval city[link]

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 centre 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. Lucca was the site of a conference in 56 BC which reaffirmed the supremacy of the Roman First Triumvirate.^[1]

Piazza Anfiteatro and the Basilica di San Frediano.

Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early 6th century.^[2] 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 margraviate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.

First republic[link]

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 1273 and again in 1277, Lucca was ruled by a Guelph capitano del popolo (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. 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.^[3]

Napoleonic conquest[link]

Palazzo Pfanner, garden view.

Lucca had been the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries.

In 1805, Lucca was conquered by Napoleon, who installed his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi 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.

[edit] Frazioni

The municipal territory of Lucca includes eighty-one “Frazioni”:

Main sights[link]

Duomo di San Martino (the Cathedral).

Autumn in Lucca.

A close up of the front façade of the San Michele in Foro.

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 will re-open to the public on 14 September 2011.^[4] At the nearby town of Torre del Lago, there is a Puccini opera festival every year in July/August. Puccini had a house there as well.

The Passeggiata delle Mura.

Church of San Michele of Antraccoli.