{"id":141,"date":"2009-05-25T06:25:11","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T10:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=141"},"modified":"2009-05-25T06:25:11","modified_gmt":"2009-05-25T10:25:11","slug":"lucca-villa-and-palazzo-guinigi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/lucca-villa-and-palazzo-guinigi\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucca: Villa and Palazzo Guinigi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A couple of weeks ago we went to my hometown, Lucca, to visit my parents, and while we were there we decided to take the opportunity to visit one of Lucca\u2019s many historic buildings. We opted for the Museo Nazionale<\/strong> di Villa Guinigi <\/strong>(National Museum of Villa Guinigi),\u00a0which\u00a0we hadn\u2019t\u00a0been to for many years, and I must say that it was an extremely pleasant rediscovery, not least because it was very quiet and tranquil after our previous day\u2019s frenetic\u00a0visit to\u00a0Firenze, in fact\u00a0we were the only visitors! The Museum houses artifacts ranging from the prehistoric to the late Roman period, and a collection of art works\u00a0dating from the Middle Ages (Romanesque, Gothic and early Renaissance periods), up to the 18th century. These works were all created either by local artists or by artists who worked in Lucca, and\u00a0they have been gathered from churches, palaces and private collections. Amongst others there are works by Jacopo della Quercia, Donatello, Matteo Civitali, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Guido Reni, and Giorgio Vasari. Of particular interest are\u00a0the fine works in inlaid\u00a0wood by Cristoforo Canozzi da Lendinara (15th century), which were originally the doors of a cupboard from the sacristy in Lucca\u2019s Cathedral. These multi-colored intarsi<\/strong> (marquetries) are a kind of trompe-l\u2019oeil of views from various Lucchese windows depicting\u00a0the town\u00a0as it appeared in the 15th century.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Museum is housed in Villa Guinigi<\/strong>, the house that Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, ordered built for himself at the beginning of the 15th century outside the town walls. The villa was intended as a \u2018country\u2019 alternative to\u00a0their town dwelling, the Palazzo Guinigi, in Lucca. Whenever\u00a0I think of the Villa Guinigi I have this image in my mind of the Guinigi family getting ready to move out to their \u2018country house\u2019\u00a0for the summer holidays: multitudes of servants covering all the furniture with white dust sheets, packing\u00a0numerous crates with clothes and personal belongings, everybody getting into the carriages, and finally starting the journey out\u00a0to the countryside, a journey that lasted probably \u2026 less than 10 minutes! In fact Villa Guinigi is situated only about a kilometer from the Guinigi\u2019s town palace! and although it was\u00a0originally\u00a0located outside the Medieval<\/span> town walls,\u00a0it was later enclosed within the 17th century town walls thus becoming a \u2018town house\u2019. This magnificent villa was built in red brick, which was very expensive at the time, and has a portico on the ground floor, and trefoil mullioned\u00a0 windows, supported by slender white marble columns, on the upper floor. The architectural style of the building is the typical Romanesque-Gothic style, which was fashionable in Lucca at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same style also characterizes Palazzo Guinigi<\/strong>, the splendid town palace built by Francesco Guinigi, father of Paolo Guinigi. A corner of the building is dominated by an imposing\u00a0tower, now a symbol of Lucca, standing out as it does against the town skyline, with its crown of lecci<\/strong> (holm-oaks). Our Cicerone <\/strong>(guide) at the museum\u00a0explained to\u00a0us that,\u00a0due to the fact that\u00a0Lucca is built on a water table, at the time of Paolo Guinigi there were strict laws that prevented the construction of very tall and\u00a0potentially unstable buildings (like the tower of Pisa for example). To overcome the problem Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, had trees planted on the top of his tower to make it taller, and thus demonstrate his wealth and power. Tourists who don\u2019t suffer from vertigo\u00a0can now\u00a0visit the top of the Torre Guinigi<\/strong> (Guinigi\u2019s Tower) and enjoy spectacular\u00a0panoramic views of the town,\u00a0making it well worth the effort of the climb. You can\u00a0find\u00a0some photos of the tower\u00a0here: http:\/\/it.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Torre_Guinigi<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Buona visita a Lucca!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago we went to my hometown, Lucca, to visit my parents, and while we were there we decided to take the opportunity to visit one of Lucca\u2019s many historic buildings. We opted for the Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi (National Museum of Villa Guinigi),\u00a0which\u00a0we hadn\u2019t\u00a0been to for many years, and I…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[782,801,822,828,882],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lucca","tag-museo-nazionale-di-villa-guinigi","tag-palazzo-guinigi","tag-paolo-guinigi","tag-torre-guinigi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}