The Walls of Lucca are 4,2 kilometers long.
This length, which corresponds exactly to one-tenth of the length of a marathon, inspired the Lucca Marathon, a marathon that is run in October and starts on the Walls of Lucca.
There are other curiosities about the map of the Walls of Lucca
At a brisk pace, you can walk around the Walls in 45 minutes, but to enjoy the walk, the colors, and the views inside and outside the city, we recommend taking it easy and allowing for about an hour.
If you want to combine your passion for jogging with a visit to the Walls, we suggest you join the Walls of Lucca Park Run, the non-competitive Saturday morning race.
Entering the Walls of Lucca is a fairly recent and fascinating experience.
A major restoration project begun in the 80s has restored accessibility and thus the use of the bastion exits, once used only by the military and protected by the bastion's own forepart.
Walking through these narrow passages, you pass through parade grounds and sometimes the halls and underground tunnels of the bastions. You can enter the Walls and appreciate the complexity of this great defensive structure and its evolution over the years of construction.
The passages and underground passages currently in use as pedestrian passages are at the bastions of San Martino, San Salvatore, Santa Maria, San Paolino, San Regolo, Santa Croce.
The underground areas of the San Regolo bastion can be accessed with a ticket to the Botanical Garden.
In the basement of the Santa Croce bastion is set up Re-Knowing the Walls a narrative journey on the construction of the Walls and the main historical events
There are six in total. Three were opened at the time of construction and three at later times.
The originals are:
Porta Santa Maria (north side) 1592
New San Donato Gate (east side) 1628
Porta San Pietro (south side) 1565
In later times the following were opened:
Porta San Jacopo (north side), opened in 1930 to allow commercial traffic with the Serchio valley
Porta Elisa (east side) opened in 1811 by Princess Elisa Baciocchi, sister of Napoleon and ruler of Lucca and Piombino, to facilitate trade towards Florence
Porta Vittorio Emanuele, better known in Lucca as Porta Sant'Anna, opened in 1910 to improve access from the populous Sant'Anna neighborhood.
Further information on the Walls of Lucca is on map of the Walls of Lucca
Leaving Lucca train station, the first thing you see are the Walls of Lucca!
The closest entrances are at Porta San Pietro (about 300 meters, proceeding to the left, along the walls) or in front of the station itself, following the pedestrian passages that cross the parade grounds of the San Colombano bastion (about 200 meters, not accessible to people with motor disabilities).
The construction of the third circle of Lucca's walls formally began in 1513 with the establishment of the Office above the Walls.
The actual construction site was opened a few years later, in 1544, and was completed in 1650.
If you want to learn more about the history of the construction of the Walls, read the History of the Walls of Lucca
The city of Lucca was born with its walls. At the time of its founding, in the 2nd century BC, the city was already surrounded by stone walls, with four entrances at the intersection of the main streets, the Cardo and the Decumanus Maximus, leading from the city forum, now the site of Piazza San Michele.
In the Middle Ages, a fortunate and prosperous period for the city thanks to its manufacturing and commercial activities, a new circle of walls was built to protect the new settlements that arose just outside the Roman walls.
The third ring, which still surrounds the city today, was built during the Renaissance, from 1544 to 1650. This last construction is therefore almost 500 years old.
If you want to learn more, visit Re-Knowing the Walls a narrative journey on the construction of the Walls and the main historical events in the basement of the Santa Croce Bastion
Lucca's Renaissance walls are the symbol of the city, a wall entirely walkable and freely accessible to all.
The current walkway at the summit is the result of a 19th-century renovation that modified its section and arranged the trees in regular avenues above the curtain walls and in the form of gardens on the bastions.
The tree-lined avenues above the curtain walls and the bastion gardens can be accessed by entering through one of the access gates and using the numerous stairways and ramps located along the entire internal perimeter.
However, for safety reasons, it is not possible to climb onto the grassy hills that border the avenues of the curtain walls and the bastions.
we suggest you one beautiful panoramic walk on the Walls of Lucca