Basilica of San Frediano

The Basilica of San Frediano is one of the oldest churches of Lucca and is located in the square from which the evening of September 13 the striking religious procession of the Holy Cross . Tradition has it that it was the same S. Frediano, an Irish bishop of Lucca , to found the church, dedicated to St. Vincent initially . Occurs for the first time in the document from the year 685 as a basilica Longobardorum , but becomes important in the second half of the twelfth century, becoming one of the most important centers for the dissemination of Gregorian liturgical reform .

 

Despite several interventions over the centuries, the medieval aspect of the Basilica has been quite prominent . Of great particularity the mosaic of the late thirteenth century on the facade , which is a rarity in the Romanesque ( in Tuscany sides of San Frediano and San Miniato al Monte in Florence are the only ones to be decorated with a mosaic ) . The mosaic image is the depiction of Christ the Redeemer who ascends to heaven in a mandorla carried by the angels. The modern window cut the figure of the Virgin is missing in the midst of the Apostles. The style of the Byzantine state and can be referred to the School of Lucca BERLINGHIERI .

 

Inside the Basilica of St. Frediano is divided into three naves and is regulated by two magnificent arched colonnades equal. Numerous chapels , built between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries , are on the sides of the aisles . From the point of view of art-historical chapels to visit the most significant are that of S. Augustine, with frescoes by Emilian Aspertini (1474-1552) , and that of the family tries with the reredos of the altar and the tombstones work of the Sienese sculptor Jacopo della Quercia ( 1374 - about 1438 ) .

 

Of great beauty, the baptismal font of the twelfth century that is in the space used as a baptistery , on the right of the entrance. The beautiful reliefs depict the stories of Moses , the Apostles and months and works are ascribed to school teachers Tuscan and Lombard .