Lucca
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
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. În 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.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 sketch is still a usable guide: the cathedral of St Martin, the Volto Santo, the 1578 municipal buildings and Bagni di Lucca in its valley to the north are all there, and the great trade in olive oil continues, Lucchese oil being a protected name today. What has gone is silk; the province's industrial mainstay since the mid-20th century has been paper, the mills around Capannori and Porcari making Lucca one of Europe's biggest producers of tissue and packaging paper. The 16th-century ramparts, which Collier's did not even mention, are now the city's signature feature, their tops a tree-shaded walking and cycling circuit. Collier's also passed over Giacomo Puccini, born in the town in 1858, whose birthplace museum and the nearby Torre del Lago festival now draw much of Lucca's tourism, alongside the huge annual Lucca Comics & Games fair.
Written for this edition, 2026.