During the Middle Ages, Lucca was a city with a great tradition of worship, located in the heart of the Via Francigena. Pilgrims on their way to Rome stopped there to rest and pray before the Holy Face. According to tradition, this is a wooden crucifix that Nicodemus carved under divine inspiration. The holy relic is kept at the Cathedral of San Martino, an imposing building rich in symbolism that served to instruct wayfarers in Christian doctrine. But Lucca Cathedral also hides more obscure signs that are difficult to interpret. Such is the case with the famous labyrinth, carved on one of the pillars of the portico. This is a reference to mythical and esoteric knowledge, a metaphor for Medieval man’s conception of the world.
Lucca Cathedral of San Martino
The origins of the earliest structures that composed Lucca Cathedral are unknown. A widespread tradition attributes the foundation of the episcopal complex to the Irish bishop Frediano (Frygianus)1, active around the mid-6th century. It consisted of various buildings, serving different liturgical functions, and was close to the medieval city walls to the south of the city. Archaeological evidence reveals that the seat of the Diocese of Lucca was originally located at the church of Santa Reparata. Not far away, on the same square, stood the Baptistery and a small church dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. From the 8th century it was chosen as the second Cathedral.
The Romanesque cathedral
Nothing remains of this ancient house of worship. The present Lucca Cathedral is the result of successive and imposing reconstructions that erased the oldest vestiges. An initial architectural renovation campaign began in 1060. The aim was to enlarge the sacred spaces following the transfer of the relics of Saint Regulus from Populonia. The work went on for ten years until the new consecration of the building in 10702, as an epigraph reused in the present portico attests:
“Hujus quae celsi radiant fastigia templi – sunt sub Alexandro Papa constructa secundo […] – Milleque sex denis templum fundamine jacto – Lustro sub bino sacrum stat fine peracto”.
The consecration took place in the presence of Pope Alexander II, Anselm of Baggio. The pontiff in the same year declared the system of the double cathedral abolished, reserving that title for the newly renovated church of San Martino alone3. Even from this Romanesque-style building, with a five-aisled4 basilica layout, almost nothing survives today, having been transformed over the centuries.
By the third quarter of the 12th century the Cathedral Chapter decided to modify the portico on the façade. By 1196, the “opus frontespitii Sancti Martini“, a council charged with raising funds to renovate the facade, was active. Guidetto da Como finished the portico in 1204 under the stylistic influences of Pisan Romanesque architecture. The asymmetry of the structure, consisting of three arches, one of which is narrower on the right, and large supporting pillars, suggests that the builder had to make compromises, certainly because of the pre-existence of the square-based bell tower. This is the first unusual feature of Lucca Cathedral. That is, the breaking of compositional harmony on which the Medieval conception of templum was based, with its rich symbolic references to perfection as the image of the divine, to accommodate the practical and functional needs of urban space.
The latest renovations
In 1308 work began on the rebuilding of the apse, as a plaque walled into it attests5. The intervention, carried out also for structural reinforcement, saw the lengthening of the presbyterial area, where the transept would later be built. In the following decades, the redefinition of the cathedral spaces began, through the reconstruction of the nave and side aisles with pointed arches and tribunes in a Gothic style, albeit never comparable to the soaring and slender style of Northern European architecture.
In 1372, however, the building was again showing signs of structural instability. Hence, the citizens of Lucca convened a council consisting of the most important architects of the time to get their opinion on what to do. Many of them came from the Santa Maria del Fiore building site in Florence. They decided to replace the pillars between the aisles with more solid ones, and to cover the church with ribbed cross vaults. The completion of the work took place in about 1390.
Treasures of Lucca Cathedral
Such a prestigious place of worship could only house great treasures of art and equally of faith. After all, in the Middle Ages the Cathedral of San Martino stood along the route of the Via Francigena. This was the ancient route used by pilgrims seeking to reach Rome and then Jerusalem, the route that the Archbishop of Canterbury Sigeric had noted in 9906. Therefore, Lucca Cathedral was to represent a kind of compendium of Christian life. It was intended not only for the citizens, but for everyone who stopped there to find refreshment during the long journey.
This didactic dimension was clearly evident in both material and non-material works. To the former we can attribute the valuable sculptural cycles of the facade. Nicola Pisano is the author of the Deposition and Annunciation, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi at the left portal (1257-1260). Guido Bigarelli contributed to the other sculptures, namely a Christ in Glory on the central portal, the stories of Saint Regulus on the right portal, the scenes from the life of Saint Martin, and the cycle of the months on the facade (1233-1260). The Cathedral also houses important works of art. The solemn Funeral Monument of Ilaria del Carretto was made by Jacopo della Quercia (1406-1408). Instead, the Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints was a masterful work by Ghirlandaio (around 1479).
The Holy Face
Pilgrims on the Via Francigena who stopped in Lucca also needed to be instructed in the faith. And it is precisely the Cathedral of San Martino which preserves an ancient relic. In the Middle Ages this was believed to be the tangible sign of God’s intervention in human history. The wooden crucifix of the Holy Face, now enclosed within a Renaissance temple made by Matteo Civitali in 1484, was the object of great veneration by wayfarers. So much so that the route of the Francigena between Pontremoli and Lucca was called the Via del Volto Santo.
According to tradition, later expanded in the 12th-century Leggenda Leboiniana, it was Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin and a disciple of Christ, who carved the wooden crucifix. But because the saint was unable to reproduce the face of the Messiah, it miraculously appeared by itself. Beyond the narrative, the Holy Face dates from between the late 8th and 9th centuries. It represents, therefore, a precious testimony to the sculptural art of the Carolingian age, as well as the oldest Christian wooden statue in the West.
The labyrinth of Lucca Cathedral
The Cathedral of San Martino displays signs and symbols with powerful meanings. These are cultural expressions unknown to us today but well understood by Medieval people to whom they were addressed. Under the narrow arcade of the portico, on a marble ashlar embedded in the right pillar leaning against the bell tower, is the mysterious carving of a labyrinth.
Next to the labyrinthine path, which is circular and unicursal, with an obligatory path, is the epigraph:
“HIC QUEM CRETICUS EDIT DEDALUS EST LABERINTHUS DEQ(U)O NULLUS VADERE QUIVIT QUI FUIT INTUS NI THESEUS GRATIS ADRIANE STAMINE IUTUS”
“This is the labyrinth built by Daedalus of Crete, from which no one who had entered it could get out, except Theseus thanks to Ariadne’s thread”.
The myth of the Minotaur
The inscription evokes myth and recalls the original meaning of labyrinthos (λαβύρινθος). It is a Greek term derived from Labrys, the double-bladed axe that symbolized the rule of King Minos of Crete. Legend says that on that island, in an inextricable labyrinth, an unclean beast was imprisoned: the Minotaur8. The monster had to remain confined for two reasons. It was not only a threat to all the inhabitants of Crete, but also the image of Minos’ wife’s betrayal. Poseidon had given the king a mighty and splendid white bull to sacrifice it in his honour. Instead, Minos killed another and the sea god took his revenge. Thus, the ruler’s wife became infatuated with the animal. From their union was born the Minotaur, half man and half bull.
When Minos defeated Athens, he demanded that that city send him seven boys and seven girls every nine years to feed the monster enclosed in the labyrinth. Prince Theseus therefore went to Crete with the intention of killing the Minotaur to free his people. The myth tells that the hero met the daughter of King Minos, Ariadne. She fell in love with him and revealed to him a stratagem for finding the exit of the labyrinth. The maiden handed Theseus a skein of thread. So that he could retrace his steps and regain his freedom. And so it happened: Theseus killed the Minotaur with a sword and could escape.
The Christian symbolism of Lucca labyrinth
But why place a labyrinth and use the myth in front of the entrance of a cathedral? Firstly, the association between Christian buildings of worship in the Middle Ages and the labyrinth recurs in other locations. This is the case with Chartres Cathedral in France, the Basilica of San Michele in Pavia, Pontremoli, Alatri, and the basilica of San Savino in Piacenza, the latter specimen now lost. Interestingly, these labyrinths, engraved, mosaic or painted, always recur along the walking routes of pilgrims heading to Rome and Jerusalem, particularly on the Via Francigena.
Considering this, the unicursal labyrinth takes on at least two meanings related to Medieval peregrinatio. First, it is an allegory of the long itinerary to be taken, from which one cannot deviate. The centre of the figure is thus Jerusalem, but the holy city is occupied by the Muslim forces, perhaps symbolized by the Minotaur? At the same time, the labyrinth recalls the spiritual journey of the pilgrim to the heavenly Jerusalem. This is the difficult path of man’s conversion, who needs to renounce material passions in order to achieve redemption. The labyrinth is unicursal since there is only one way to salvation: following Christ, as Theseus did with Ariadne’s thread.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.
Gospel of John 14:6.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- G. Ciampoltrini, Rilievi del VI secolo in Toscana, in Prospettiva 65, 1992. ↩︎
- E. Ridolfi, L’arte in Lucca studiata nella sua cattedrale, B. Canovetti, 1882. ↩︎
- C. Taddei, Lucca tra XI e XII secolo: territorio, architetture, città, STEP, Parma, 2005. ↩︎
- M. Frati, Architettura romanica a Lucca (XI-XII secolo). Snodi critici e paesaggi storici, in Scoperta armonia. Arte medievale a Lucca, a cura di C. Bozzoli e M. T. Filieri, Edizioni Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca, 2014. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Sigeric’s Itinerary, British Library, London, catalogued as MS Cotton Tiberius B. V, ff. 23v – 24r. ↩︎
- Photo by Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA, image. ↩︎
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses, Book VIII. ↩︎
