The Ascension mosaic
A vast gold ground blazing in the afternoon sun.
Myrabella โ Public domain ยท Myrabella โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Ingo Mehling โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Assianir โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**A church with an enormous gold mosaic on its front that catches fire in the afternoon sun** โ north of central Lucca, and unique in Tuscany. โ **The mosaic is unusual here**: **most Tuscan church fronts are carved marble**. **San Frediano carries a huge gold mosaic** of the 13th century showing the **Ascension of Christ** with the apostles beneath โ **a Byzantine-Roman technique** rather than a Tuscan one, โ **and it genuinely blazes when the afternoon sun reaches it**. โ **Inside is a Romanesque basilica on reused ancient columns** taken from Roman buildings. โ It holds a **12th-century font** carved with scenes of Moses, **and the preserved body of Saint Zita** โ patron of domestic servants โ displayed in a reliquary. โ **The church is far quieter** than the cathedral.
A vast gold ground blazing in the afternoon sun.
A 12th-century font carved with scenes of Moses.
Ancient Roman columns carrying the nave.
Piazza San Frediano, 55100 Lucca, Italy
**Because making a marble column was far harder than moving an existing one โ and the practice has a name: spolia.** โ **The cost**: **carving a monolithic marble column** requires **a working quarry, skilled craftsmen and heavy transport over distance** โ **and all of that collapsed with the western Roman Empire**. โ **So early medieval Europe could no longer produce them at the same quality or in the same numbers.** โ **And the supply was abundant**: **abandoned Roman temples, baths and basilicas** filled Italy's cities โ **full of ready-made, precisely carved columns**. **So they were taken and reused.** โ **The name**: reused pieces are called **spolia** โ ยซspoilsยป. โ **The visible effect**: **you notice in these churches that the columns do not match** โ differing in height, thickness, marble and capital; **so they are cut down or raised on plinths to level them**. **This is not carelessness but the reality of the available material.** โ **There is a symbolic dimension too**: **incorporating a pagan temple's columns into a church** read as **Christianity's triumph over what preceded it** โ **so spolia is not only economy but a statement**.
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