Ilaria's tomb
A funerary sculpture by Jacopo della Quercia, among Italy's finest.
Myrabella — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zairon — CC BY 4.0 · Zairon — CC BY 4.0 · Zairon — CC BY 4.0
**A cathedral whose façade is deliberately asymmetric because the bell tower was there first — with a labyrinth carved into one of its columns** — in southeastern Lucca. Built from the **11th century** in the Lucchese Romanesque manner: **three tiers of small loggias** above three arches, **and every one of its hundreds of columns carved in a different pattern**. ⚠ **The façade is visibly lopsided**: **the right-hand arch is narrower than the others** — ⚠ **because the bell tower already stood before the façade and was not demolished**, **so the front was compressed to fit around it**. ✅ **On one of the porch columns is a circular labyrinth** the size of a palm — **traced with a finger**, a survival of pilgrimage ritual. ✅ It holds the **tomb of Ilaria del Carretto** by Jacopo della Quercia — **among the loveliest funerary sculptures in Italy** — ⚠ **in the sacristy/museum, for a separate fee**. ✅ And the wooden crucifix, the **Volto Santo**, is a pilgrimage object.
A funerary sculpture by Jacopo della Quercia, among Italy's finest.
A small circle in a porch pier, traced with a finger.
Hundreds of columns, each carved in a different pattern.
Piazza Antelminelli, 55100 Lucca, Italy
**A symbolic pilgrimage for those who could not travel — and a meditation traced with a finger or walked with the feet.** ✅ **The idea**: **pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome or Santiago** was a cherished spiritual duty, ⚠ **but costly, dangerous and impossible for many** — the poor, the sick, women, the old. ✅ **So churches offered a substitute**: **a labyrinth painted or carved** which the believer completed **by walking its path if it was in the floor**, **or tracing it with a finger if it was small on a column** — **and it counted as a symbolic pilgrimage**. ⚠ **It is not a maze**: **it has only one path**, winding at length but arriving inevitably at the centre — **no junctions and no choices**. **The symbolism is plain**: **the road to God is long and winding but does not lose anyone who persists**. ✅ **The most famous is the floor labyrinth of Chartres** in France, still walked today. ✅ **Lucca's is the small kind**: **carved palm-sized into a porch pier** at the cathedral door — **the pilgrim touched and traced it before entering** — ⚠ **and it has been polished smooth by thousands of fingers over the centuries**. ✅ **It is free and outside** — try it.
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