Chiesa di San Francesco

This guide to the Chiesa di San Francesco in Lucca follows the building from Franciscan friars settling here in 1228 through centuries as a place of prayer and burial, including composer Luigi Boccherini's resting place since 1927, alongside violinist Francesco Geminiani and bishop Giovanni Guidiccioni. It then traces the abrupt turn after Italian unification in 1862, when soldiers moved into the cloisters and the convent stood as an abandoned barracks for decades. Look closely at the stone around you, still carrying the marks of that long neglect before any restoration began.