San Paolino, Lucca
Renaissance basilica of marble facade and frescoed interior, rebuilt after a saint's relics were unearthed on the site.
This guide to the church of San Paolino in Lucca opens with a near disaster on the city's biggest feast day in 1664, when cannons fired live shot into a crowd gathered on the bridge below. It traces that street, Via San Paolino, back to its life as the Roman decumanus, the road that carried silk merchants and pilgrims out to Europe and back. Relics believed to be Saint Paulinus's turned up here in 1261, drawing crowds and money fast enough to sweep away the older church that stood on this spot. Two and a half centuries later the city called in architect Baccio da Montelupo to rebuild it grander still.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.