National Museum Palazzo Mansi

The National Museum of Palazzo Mansi, a true museum-residence, is an exemplary example of the homes of Lucca's merchants. Transformed at the end of the 17th century by its owner, the Mansi family, into a "palazzo di rappresentanza" (stately palace) and furnished in the prevailing Baroque style, it is today an important example of a "museum within a museum."

Interior facade of the four-story Palazzo Mansi National Museum. On the ground floor, a sandstone portal and three windows. On one side, a small garden. On the main floor, a loggia with sandstone arches and columns, over which a bare, wild vine climbs. On the upper floor, rectangular windows with sandstone frames, as on the top floor, set back.

In the rooms of this typical Lucca residence, which preserves much of the original furnishings and a precious cycle of tapestries manufactured in Brussels, the picture gallery with paintings from Italian and non-Italian schools from the 16th to the 18th century. The second floor houses sections dedicated to the 19th and 20th centuries, and the rooms that once housed the palace's kitchens now house the Rustic Weaving Workshop. Maria Niemack, which exhibits looms and tools from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The rooms of the Textile collections which offer visitors the extraordinary opportunity to discover the history of the production and trade of precious fabrics on which Lucca based its entire economy and wealth, starting in the 12th century.