Lucban
a town on the island of Luzon, in the province of Tayabas. The chief industry is the manufacture of straw hats and mats. Rice is also grown on the terraces of the hills. Pop. about 12,500.
Vol. VI-Cyc-C LUCCA LUCCA (lök'kä), called "the Industrious," chief town of an Italian province, situated on a plain, bounded by picturesque hills and irrigated by the Serchio, 14 miles by rail N. E. of Pisa; has a great trade in olive oil and silk.
The cathedral of St. Martin, begun in 1063, has a cedar crucifix reputed to have been brought to Lucca in 782; this Volto Santo ("Sacred Countenance") is mentioned by Dante; the church contains also several fine paintings, the tomb of Maria Guinigi, and valuable archives; there are nearly 40 other churches, some dating from the 7th and 8th centuries.
A splendid aqueduct (1820) supplies the town with water from the Pisan hills.
The municipal buildings (1578) contain a valuable collection of paintings; the town is exceptionally rich in artistic and scientific institutions, and the environs abound in delightful villas. Lucca (ancient Luca) was made a Roman colony in 177 B. C. The town had a most checkered history down to 1369, when it became an independent republic, which lasted till 1797. In 1805 it was erected into a principality by Napoleon for his sister, Elisa Bacciochi, and in 1815 passed to Maria Louisa of Spain, Queen of Etruria. Her son, Charles Louis, ceded it to Tuscany in 1847, on obtaining possession of Parma and Piacenza. In a charming valley, 16 miles N. of the town, are situated the mineral baths of Lucca, which have been famous since the 15th century. Pop. about 80,000. The province is famed for the fertility of its soil and the superiority of its agriculture.