The WWII in Lucca
Lucca thus avoided the shelling and bombardments that would have been fatal to it, with no clashes between the armies in the streets, no reprisals in the city. Read all
Blog
Lucca through time: August
Yes, August is here. It is the month when the land yields its ripest, juiciest fruit and vegetables. And so we meet up, once again, with our medieval farmer in the loggia of the Duomo of San Martino in Lucca, who is hard at work and introduces us to the theme of this month, the agriculture of Lucca and territory. Read all
Lucca through time: July
The panel for the month of July, in the portico of the Duomo of Lucca, shows a farmer threshing grain by hand. Today, only a handful of our elderly can recall farmers threshing grain with the ancient hand tool called flail. Read all
Lucca through time – June
After the digressions of April and May, the farmer is with us once again. He has rolled up his sleeves and is back at work. In fact, in the panel representing the month of June at the Duomo of Lucca, the farmer is harvesting wheat.
Lucca through time – May
It’s finally May. The temperatures are warmer and make you feel like going out. The elegantly dressed young man we saw in April is now horse riding and holding a fresh flower in his hand.
Lucca through time: April
Remember the panels of the months located in the portico of Lucca’s Cathedral of San Martino? Well, to describe the passage of time, there isn’t only a farmer, as we saw in January, February, and March. April is represented by a well-dressed nobleman and so is May. We’ll talk about May next month; now we’re going to concentrate on April. April is depicted by a young man, who is looking in a mirror, and makes us think about beauty, youth and vanitas. In this video, we take a look at fashion and beauty in the sacred and the profane, the past and the present, the Cathedral Museum and the Museum of Palazzo Mansi. We meet up with the eternally-damned, quintessential beauty of Lucca, Lucida Mansi. She is the expression of vanitas to the nth degree, a Dorian Gray or...
Lucca through time – March
March the month of change. It’s the end of darkness and the beginning of light, a rebirth. The farmer, in the loggia of San Martino, is pruning and grafting fruit plants so they can return to life after winter dormancy.
Lucca through time – February
January has come and gone and it’s now February, the second month of the year. Do you remember the sculpted medieval panels in the loggia of the Cathedral of Lucca, San Martino? I’m sure you do. February is depicted by a fisherman, intent upon catching a nice-sized fish with his fishing pole. Why was fishing chosen as a means to procure food in winter? In the Middle Ages, more so than today, the territory surrounding Lucca was extremely water-rich. Streams, brooks, the many tributaries of the Serchio River, nearby lakes and marshes supplied many varieties of fish. Even in winter, nature offered opportunities to find nourishment. And today, our territory is being revitalized by the return of many species of animals which had been absent from it for a very long time. In particular, the green area immediately outside...
Lucca through time – January
Here we are in the month of January. The first month of the year, and in the panels of the Duomo of Lucca it is represented by a farmer warming himself in front of a fire. Winter can be cold and bleak and shows its true colors and multiple faces in the city and in the countryside in this stretch of Tuscany which lies between the mountains and the sea. The city appears monumental and immobile due to a diminished presence of people. The countryside appears even colder and more hostile. Yet, both have a unique and irresistible appeal, recalling emotions of long-ago, human and collected, with an invitation to remain safely at home, cozy and snug. Even animals, be it city or country, adapt to winter mode as did medieval man, as does contemporary man today. Some ancient...
Lucca through time
This year, more so than in past decades, we were forced to change the pace of our lifestyles. We had to modify our way of working and even, what became, our long breaks of free time. It sometimes seemed as if we were frozen in time. At this point, life has placed us in these particular circumstances, offering us a chance to savor the passing of time in a different way, almost as in days of long-ago. Perhaps it is for this reason, that we, who tell the stories of our territory and of its past inhabitants on a daily basis, began studying the medieval panels of the months in the loggia of the Duomo of Lucca more carefully. It is almost as if that time of yore has come back, in order that we reflect more carefully on...