The Baroque garden
Stone statues flanking a central walk, and a fountain.
Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · www.Pixel.la Free Stock Photos — CC0 · Infrogmation — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Francesco Tosoni — CC BY-SA 4.0
**A 17th-century palace with a statue-lined Baroque garden, visible free from the top of the city walls** — in northwestern Lucca. It was built in **1660** for the merchant Moriconi family, then bought in the 19th century by **Felix Pfanner**, **an Austrian who founded Lucca's first brewery in it** — ⚠ **the brewery worked in the palace cellars until 1929**, ✅ **and its equipment is still displayed**. ✅ **The garden is the object**: a **Baroque garden with stone statues of gods and the seasons** flanking a central walk, **a fountain**, **lemon trees in pots**, **and the city walls immediately behind**. ⚠ **The palace has appeared in films** — among them *The Portrait of a Lady* and *Marie José*. ✅ **Its open external staircase** is the finest thing about the building.
Stone statues flanking a central walk, and a fountain.
An open arcaded stair, the palace's finest feature.
Equipment from Lucca's first brewery in the cellars.
Via degli Asili 33, 55100 Lucca, Italy
Basilica of San Frediano**A church with an enormous gold mosaic on its front that catches fire in the af1 minute walk4.6
Piazza dell'Anfiteatro**A completely enclosed oval square whose shape is a Roman amphitheatre, with ho3 minutes walk4.5
The Guinigi Tower**A medieval tower with seven full-grown oak trees on its roof** — in the middle5 minutes walk4.5
San Martino Cathedral**A cathedral whose façade is deliberately asymmetric because the bell tower was8 minutes walk4.5
The Walls of Lucca**A complete Renaissance wall four kilometres round, turned into a public park y12 minutes walk4.7**A circuit of the wall first to see the whole city, then drop into it — the city is small and a day is enough.** ✅ **Morning — the wall**: **hire a bicycle at one of the gates** and ride the full circuit, **4.2 km in about 25 minutes** (or an hour walking) — ✅ **which gives you a mental map of the whole city** and shows you the Palazzo Pfanner garden free from above. ✅ **Then come down at the Baluardo San Paolino.** ✅ **Late morning — the centre**: **Piazza dell'Anfiteatro** (and walk around it outside to see the Roman stone), **then the Guinigi Tower** with its trees — ✅ **climb it now rather than later**, as from it you see the amphitheatre square from above. ✅ **Then San Frediano** — ⚠ **but remember its mosaic needs afternoon sun**, so you may postpone it. ✅ **Afternoon — the south**: **San Martino cathedral** (find the labyrinth on the pier, and pay to see Ilaria's tomb), **and the light will be on it by now**. ✅ **Then return to San Frediano** with the sun on its mosaic. ✅ **Evening**: **Via Fillungo**, the shopping street, and dinner in the lanes behind Piazza dell'Anfiteatro rather than in it. ⚠ **And Lucca is a bicycle city** — completely flat and car-free in the centre.