Campanile di San Martino (Lucca)

The Campanile di San Martino It is the bell tower of the Cathedral of Lucca and is located in Piazza San Martino.

Since its origins, the city of Lucca has constituted an important point of passage on the link between Northern Europe and Rome. Twenty -sixth stage of the itinerary traveled in the 10th century by the Sigeric Bishop of Canterbury, Lucca was on the Via Francigena; Its high walls and numerous towers, which accompanied both private and religious buildings, as also suggest the oldest representations of the city contained in the chronic of Giovanni Sercambi, offered safe refuge to travelers, pilgrims and merchants.

Among the bell towers of greatest importance of the city of Lucca, that of the cathedral placed on the south corner of the facade must certainly be counted. Since its foundation, the Cathedral has always occupied a peripheral position, having adjacent to the different city walls and in particular on the southern slope, considered the most vulnerable part as it turned towards the city of Pisa. For its proximity to the walls placed in defense of the city it is very likely that the bell tower of the Cathedral of Lucca has also carried out a civil function. On the other hand, the presence of a mighty stylobate and the quality of finish that characterizes it suggests that, according to a widespread practice, in the original project the bell tower was separated from the cathedral factory and could have had genesis and intended users of noble use .

Despite the coexistence of different materials and executive techniques that reveal its complex genesis, the architectural structure appears consistent in its vertical development, also in the progressive insertion of white limestone elements. The 59.5 m high bell tower rests on a robust quadrangular -based stylobate in the wart. The prospect opens outwards with five polypore orders (from below, respectively single lamp, mild, trifore and two floors with quadrifore); The higher crowning is made up of Ghibelline Merli. Through the use of Marcapian frames, the subdivision in orders is taken up which characterizes the title page of the cathedral. The construction of the title page referable to 1204, as revealed by the rectum inscription from the statue of Guidetto da Como on the corner between the bell tower and counter -deal, was conditioned by the pre -existence of the bell tower; The prospect of the portico is in fact asymmetrical. The lower part of the bell tower, at least up to a third of its structure, must be referred to an era prior to the XII century. From the second half of the thirteenth century, the recovery of the works is marked by the use of the limestone of the Cave di San Lorenzo in Vaccoli in Mount Pisano; The construction probably ended at the beginning of the fourteenth century as indirectly attests to us the execution of the two major bells built between 1320 and 1324 under the operating Matteo Campanari and his successor Bonaventura Rolenzi. Inside the bell tower, there is a concert of seven bells in Mi ♭ 3 falling, of which some of the XIII-XIV centuries. ^[first]

The bell tower has been the subject of numerous restorations, as repeatedly hit by lightning as shown by the various notes contained in the shopping books of the work of S. Croce “Expenses to accommodate the bell tower for damage done by the Saetta”. The restoration completed in 2016, fundamental for a better understanding of the constructive events of this interesting structure, allows today to go up to the top of the tower (217 steps) and admire an extraordinary and large panorama that embraces the whole city of Lucca.

Together with other monuments that overlook Piazza San Martino (the Cathedral, the Cathedral Museum, the Baptistery and the Archaeological Area of ​​the Church of the Saints Giovanni and Reparata), the bell tower is part of the visit itinerary of the museum and archaeological complex of the Cathedral of Lucca. ^[2]

• Clara Baracchini, Antonino Caleca, The Cathedral of Lucca , Lucca, Baroni, 1973
• Enrico Ridolfi, The art in Lucca studied in its cathedral , rest. Anast. Bologna, A. Forni, 1976
• Graziano Concioni, S. Martino in Lucca. The medieval cathedral, in “Archeology magazine, history, costume”, year XXII, n. 1-4, Lucca 1994
• L’zzomo Lera, Marcello Lhera, On the streets of the first Jubilee: bells and bell towers in the territory of the dioceses of Luni, Lucca, Pisa , Lucca 1998
• Juan Antonio Quiros Castillo, ways of building in Lucca in the Altomodioevo: a reading through the archeology of architecture, Florence 2002
• Fabio Redi, Enrico Romiti, inside and outside the Arborate Cerchio: housing and productive structures in Lucca and in the territory during the Middle Ages, Cinisello Balsamo 2005
• The chronic of Giovanni Sercambi Lucchese, edited by Giorgio Tori, Lucca 2016