Cathedral of San Martino

The Cathedral of San Martino, with its “lame” portico and façade adorned with small columns, is one of the richest and most interesting churches in Lucca.

CONTACT

ADDRESSPiazza San Martino, Lucca

TEL : 0583 490530

E-MAIL: info@museocatedralelucca.it

APP & WEB SOLUTION: museocattedralelucca.it

Consecrated in 1070 by Pope Alexander, the church initially had five naves, but was rebuilt and expanded several times. The most significant renovation dates back to 1308, when the façade was redesigned into its current asymmetrical layout and the addition of the lavishly decorated columns and cornices.
With the last intervention, which ended in 1637, the external decorations and the construction of the Chapel of the Sanctuary were completed.

Inside it are kept two works of art that are symbols of the city: the sarcophagus of Ilaria del Carretto, Renaissance masterpiece of Jacopo della Quercia, and the very ancient Holy Face.

Ilaria del Carretto she was the wife of Paul Guinigi, lord of Lucca in the first decades of the 1400s, and died at just twenty-seven years old in 1405. To remember her, her husband commissioned theeffigy of an artist considered among the greatest sculptors of the timeThe work is one of the most significant of Italian Renaissance sculpture.

Il Holy Face It is a wooden crucifix said to have been made by Nicodemus, a follower of Christ. Miraculously arriving in Lucca, it was first kept in the church of San Frediano, and then transferred to the cathedral. In commemoration of this event, Lucca holds a long and popular procession every year through the streets of the historic center, illuminated with thousands of small candles placed on cornices and architectural reliefs. This procession takes the name of Luminara. Over the centuries the Crucifix acquired ever greater fame until it became a symbol of the city itself and an obligatory destination of devotion for pilgrims walking along the via Francigena

Connected to Piazza San Martino are Piazza San Giovanni, where the Church of the Saints John and Reparata, and square Antelminelli, with the Cathedral Museum , neoclassical tub designed by Lorenzo Nottolini at the conclusion of the monumental work of the aqueduct.

From the month of August 2016, after important restoration works, it was open to the public also there Bell tower of the cathedral. Dating back to the 12th-13th centuries e about 60 meters high, the bell tower had been built with heterogeneous local materials, such as Guamo stone and limestone of Santa Maria del Giudice (Both quarries are located a few kilometers from the city, at the foot of Monte Pisano.) Climbing the 217 steps, visitors reach the bell tower, where they can enjoy a 360° view of the city and the Lucca plain.

The foyer is accessible via a 25% ramp (227x140). The main entrance has a 19% ramp (118x118) and a subsequent 4 cm step.

Puccini itineraries
Giacomo Puccini, after being baptized in his birthplace with special authorization, was taken to the Cathedral for the completion of the baptismal rites.
In this same cathedral, all his ancestors had carried out a considerable part of their activity, as organists, composers, and concertmasters. The church was then equipped with two splendid instruments, now unfortunately dismantled, of which the choir stalls and the façade pipes remain visible.
For the feast of Santa Croce in 1872, young Giacomo made his professional debut here, as assistant to the second choir, for a fee of 3,72 lire. Among the music on the program was a Mottettone by his father Michele. His uncle Fortunato Magi conducted.
Despite numerous requests from his mother Albina, Giacomo was never able to obtain the post of organist, which had been held by Puccini uninterruptedly for 124 years – from 1740 until the death of his father Michele in 1864 – due to the poor judgment of the members of a commission to whom the Opera di Santa Croce had delegated the decision.
Having become famous and settled far from Lucca, Puccini always remembered his early performances and was never at a loss for the music being performed. He discussed it with his friend Gustavo Giovannetti, and in September 1887, he wrote to his brother-in-law Raffaello Franceschini, with his usual ability to blend the sacred and the profane: "Tell me what's new in Lucca and what music they're playing for Santa Croce and everything that's happened: deaths, rapes, thefts, adulteries, sheep-trafficking."