Duomo San Martino Lucca - Tuscany

The Duomo di San Martino also known as Lucca Cathedral is a medieval cathedral dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. This saint, better known as Saint Martin, is depicted on the facade of the cathedral sitting on a horse. At first it looks like a beautiful old cathedral from the outside, but if you look a little closer you will see that there are all kinds of mistakes. For example, there is a difference in the arches of the facade and the upper part has never been completed. The marble ornaments on the facade are beautiful.
A small rectangular chapel contains one of the most important relics of the city, the `Volto Santo di Lucca.´ It is a wooden cross, with carvings depicting a Jesus. The cross, made between 1170 and 1220, has an impressive size of more than four meters, with the Christ figure being 2.5 meters high. Under the influence of centuries of use of incense and candles, the image is darkened.

The church also houses works of art by Tinteretto, Fra Bartolomeo and Domenico Ghirlandaio. Another striking element in the cathedral is the funerary monument of Ilaria del Carretto.

Willem Vandenameele