Things to See in Lucca | 2 Monuments & Landmarks

All the monuments in Lucca

The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.

Plane trees riding the Renaissance walls of Lucca

Mura di LuccaWalls of LuccaA complete Renaissance wall circuit, eleven bastions, cycling and walking the tree-lined rampartsLucca is one of the very few Italian cities to keep its defensive walls fully intact, a four kilometer ring built between the 16th and 17th centuries to withstand cannon fire, with earth packed between brick facings thick enough to absorb artillery that would have shattered thinner medieval fortifications. Eleven bastions punctuate the circuit, along with gates that once controlled every approach to the city. The walls never faced a real siege, and by the early 19th century, under Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon's sister and ruler of the Duchy of Lucca, they were replanted with plane trees and converted into the tree-lined public promenade that crowns them today. Walking or cycling the full loop takes roughly an hour and gives a continuous, elevated view into both the historic center and the surrounding countryside at once, a rare double perspective no other Tuscan city offers so easily.Plan the visit

SquarePiazza dell'AnfiteatroAn oval piazza tracing a buried Roman amphitheatre, curved house fronts, four ancient entrance passagesPiazza dell'Anfiteatro is an oval square that only exists because a Roman amphitheatre once stood on the spot, built outside Lucca's original walls in the first or second century CE to seat crowds for games. As the empire declined the amphitheatre fell into ruin and disuse, and over centuries houses were built directly into and over its arched foundations, preserving its oval footprint even as the structure itself vanished from view. In 1830, the architect Lorenzo Nottolini cleared the buildings that had filled the interior, exposing the oval as an open public square while leaving the curved houses standing around its rim, their ground floors still following the rhythm of the old Roman arches. Four narrow passages, once the amphitheatre's entrances, lead in from the surrounding streets, making the square a small, accidental lesson in how a city can erase a monument and still remember its exact shape.

The Lucca guide

Tours worth booking in Lucca

Compared by our editors, across providers.

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Lucca Royal Experience – Grand Tour Deluxe by Carriage (2 Hours)
- Viator
- 2h
- 5.0★ · 50 reviews
from €286Book this tour
Private Photo Shoot in Lucca
- Viator
- 1h 30m
- 5.0★ · 4 reviews
from €175Book this tour
Pisa and Lucca Shore Excursion from La Spezia Port
- Viator
- 9h
- 5.0★ · 6 reviews
from €990Book this tour
Lucca Bikes and Bites with food tastings for Small Groups or Private
- Viator
- 3h
- 5.0★ · 279 reviews
from €92Book this tour
Early morning Lucca private walking tour
- Viator
- 2h
- 5.0★ · 1 reviews
from €110Book this tour
2h Lucca Walking Tour with Local Guide in ENGLISH Top Highlights
- Viator
- 2h
- 5.0★ · 10 reviews
from €18Book this tour

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