Napoleon Square

Despite the Lucca is known as " Piazza Grande " , the name " Piazza Napoleone " gives an idea of the place in which , coming from the streets of the medieval city , you get lost in a space created in the image of large expanses Paris.

 

The square has always been the center of political power in Lucca, but its original appearance was completely different and the history of the buildings that populated the place was guarded for centuries from underground.

 

She was chosen in 1322 by Castruccio Castracani , leader of the Ghibelline family of Antelminelli , to build the fort at Augusta and a palace , perhaps designed by Giotto. When Castruccio in 1370 was driven away from Lucca, the huge fortress, which is spread over about a quarter of the city, was completely razed to the ground by the people themselves .

 

The current layout of the square , however, dates back to the Napoleonic , when the principality of Lucca, 1805-1815 , was in the hands of Baiocchi Elisa Bonaparte , Napoleon's sister , who decided to celebrate the illustrious kinsman giving the square the his name.

 

For its construction , according to the project of an Italian and a French architect , it was not possible to avoid pave houses , warehouses, a tower , the store , the shops and even a church , San Pietro Maggiore ; everything to give greater clarity and prestige to the Ducal Palace , also known as the Public Palace , now the seat of the Province of Lucca .

 

The facades of the buildings that surrounded the square were not quite so pleasing to the eye , so it was decided to cover them with a thick screen of plane trees , as they appear today. Front of the building had to camp a huge statue of Napoleon , but the project was not followed and the statue in the center of the space became that of Maria Luisa of Bourbon, after that in 1815 she was entrusted with the command of the city.

 

Despite ( or perhaps because of ) the arrangement of Napoleon, the square became a huge parking lot until 1998 when , during a great work of restructuring brought to light the foundations of all the buildings that stood in that place before the arrival of Baiocchi .

 

Indeed, it was known, especially from old prints and floor plans , which originally there were a church and the tower of the Mint of Lucca, but excavations have revealed a fascinating fact, completely different from what appeared to be ancient designs .

 

It was at this point that has been making its way the hypothesis that those remains and foundations could all belong to the Augusta and analyzing environments that occupied most of the square have become more and more evident the real dimensions of the fortress of Castruccio Castracani , which it was considered an extension occupy approximately equivalent to the sole of the Palazzo Ducale.

 

Nothing is known of his real plant , because the design of a place made of secret routes that would protect Castruccio from all danger had been surrounded by an aura of absolute secrecy.

 

It was discovered that the fortress was built with a series of accesses related to one another so that if the enemy had passed unscathed through the first , would be able to overcome difficulties with the other two ; meanwhile Castruccio would have had the chance to escape easily through the dense network of tunnels prepared just in case of danger , also equipped with niches to house the torches for lighting.

 

Today, from the center of power , the square is transformed each summer in the heart of the cultural life of the city, in a setting where spacious and charming concerts often take place .