History

Among the historic buildings of Lucca, this building owes the actual connotation to an ancestor of the present owner, Giuseppe Tucci. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century he decided to renovate the house where his family lived from more than two centuries, adjusting to the new architectural criteria.

The renovation coincides with the Giuseppe Tucci’s marriage with Maria Teresa Guinigi. The renovation was so radical that it erased traces of the medieval era of the pre-existing building on its front, while the lack of plaster on its back gives us an idea of the original structure, which was made up of the amalgamation of several houses and towers. A beautiful arch decorated in terracotta, which is visible in the courtyard, shows the home’s original importance.

Giuseppe Tucci commissioned the modernization project to the architect Ottaviano Diodati, who was the best as well as the most up to date and innovative architect in the area at that time and worked in the file of architecture in Tuscany, the rest of Italy, France and Vienna. It is not a coincidence that this is one of the few historic buildings in the city to have concealed, at least in the main facade, the medieval and renaissance remains, which has always been attributed to a compositional European style, and in particular, Viennese.
The historic house, located in an area within the Roman walls, has its main entrance on Via Cesare Battisti.

A large portal, surmounted by family’s coat of arms and the inscription “JOSEPH TUCCIUS SIBI POSTERISQUE – A. D. MDCCLXXIX”, characterizes the main facade. A plaque on the back facade commemorates the birth of the musician Alfredo Catalani, whose works have been devoted to the rooms of the residence.

The entrance hall is divided into two rooms. In the second room, which is covered with an oval vault sitting on columns, there is a large staircase that leads directly to the access portal of the main floor. This is decorated with mouldings and crowned by an oval window.

A large room at the entry leads to the representation quarters that has gilded stucco decorations and paintings, which, in some cases, reproduce the late eighteenth-century repertoire and some already show neoclassicism, a sign that their decoration is prolonged in time.

The main hall is the only room to present a different aspect. Here there are frescoes on the ceiling that depict the Flora and the Four Seasons. On the walls on the sides of the entrance there are two large canvases that are framed by stucco frames and the other canvases are placed on top of each of the doors that open onto the hall. The subjects of all these paintings come from mythology or classical history and seem to be painted by Giovan Domenica Paladini, a painter from Lucca.

Palazzo Tucci rightfully occupies a place of honour amongst the historical and ancient houses of Lucca and Tuscany.