A
lively town, sheltered snugly within its mighty 16th-17th-century boundary wall,
astonishing in its elegance and state of preservation, Lucca's urban layout
and architecture reveal the course of the historic events that have touched
it: the regularity of several stretches of the road layout recalls, together
with the Amphitheatre square, the Roman colony that it became in 180 B.C.; the
splendour of its churches, built in that Romanesque Pisan style that in Lucca
becomes airier and lighter, can be linked to the opulence that was achieved
some time around the 12th century thanks to the activism of its merchants, who
manufactured and traded in silk; finally, the rich Renaissance residences in
the city replaced the mediaeval brick with stone and expanded into the surrounding
countryside in the form of sumptuous villas, following the fate of an economy
that moved its hub from commerce towards agriculture. Finally, the 18th and
19th century with their aristocratic town-houses in which elegance rises as
a symbol of power, complete the face of a city that succeeded in preserving
its independence intact through the centuries.
