In early March this year I finally decided to take photos of a walk on the walls. So for all our friends who wonder what we mean when we say, “going for a walk on the walls,” here is a 5 minute video of what you see as you walk the entire wall, about 4 kilometers. It takes about an hour to leisurely walk it. I hope you enjoy the walk as much as we do!
Some fun facts about the wall.
(Excerpts from the website www.anticaresidenzadellangelo.com)
The walls of Lucca have a long history that goes from the second century BC to the sixteenth century AD. In Roman times, with the founding of the city, the first wall surrounding Lucca was built. Then construction began on the second wall in medieval times, between the eleventh and twelfth centuries and ended in the thirteenth century, resulting in a wall which completely replaced the first. You can see small parts of the Ancient Roman city walls, still preserved as foundations of new buildings constructed later (on the Corso Garibaldi and the Church of Santa Maria della Rosa).
A third wall was built between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, to surround the city of Lucca which had by then grown considerably.
Finally in 1545 began the building of the monumental Renaissance walls of Lucca, whose construction required a century of work, which was completed in 1650. Those are the walls you see today. The Republic of Lucca undertook the effort with the express purpose of showing it’s wealth, power, adapting to advances in military technology and, of course, defense from any attack by the Medici of Florence.
But the walls of Lucca were never used in warfare and 1799 marked the end of its use as defense. Maria Luisa of Bourbon inaugurated the walls as a place to walk and involved the architects to modify the walls in keeping with the new purpose.
The sixteenth-century walls went on to characterize the city of Lucca, which retains its medieval and Renaissance architecture to this day.
Here is a video I made as I walked around the wall one day.
Here is a map of Lucca. The red line indicates the wall.
