The Roman town of Lucca

Lucca

The material remains of the Roman town's roads are not visible, but a large portion of today's streets follows the ancient layout with slight changes, so that we can affirm that it is well preserved and can be appreciated during a walk.

The main road axes, cardo and decumanus maximi, at the end of which the gates of the city (Roman walls) were to be found, are today reflected respectively in the alignments of Via Fillungo-Via Cenami and Via S. Paolino-Via S. Croce. Still to be seen is the pronounced change of direction in the cardo maximus at the northern exit of the town, after it crosses Via Nuova and before it reaches the amphitheatre. Other cardos, roads oriented along the north-south axis, well preserved in today's road net, are those corresponding to Via Galli Tassi, Via Burlamacchi, the alignment of Via Vittorio Veneto-Via Calderia and Via Fatinelli; the last cardo to the east was placed along Via delle Chiavi d'Oro and, although it is preserved only for a very short stretch, it has been identified thanks to the discovery of a portion of roadbed at the foot of Torre Guinigi.
The layout of the decumani, oriented along the east-west axis, is reflected by Via S. Giorgio, that to the east might have continued along the town wall and by the alignments of Via S. Giustina-Via Buia-Via S. Andrea and Via Vittorio Emanuele-Via del Battistero-Via Vallisneri.
The last decumanus to the south is no longer visible, but it is quite possible that this road axis was along the north side of the cathedral of S. Martino and of the church of S. Romano. The construction of both churches, the position of which still partly respected the ancient road layout, must have very soon given rise to a new, more appropriate, road plan.
The town's blocks were rectangular in form, 120 x 105 m. (i.e. 4 x 3 ½ actus according to Roman measures), with the exception of a central strip, designed to contain the forum, that measured 140 x 120 m.. The forum was situated in today's Piazza S. Michele, referred to as 'in foro' by Early Medieval documents; remains of public and religious buildings have been identified along the west side of the piazza, in the block limited by Via Di Poggio and Corte Portici.
Smaller and irregularly shaped blocks, conditioned by the layout of the walls, were to be found along the eastern and northern sides of the town; one of these, probably in the time of Augustus, was used for the construction of the theatre. The reconstruction of the ancient plan has shown the perfect consistence between urban layout and contemporary division of the fields (centuriation), also based on orthogonal axes: the definition of the town's road axes appears to have been based on a 'centurial decumanus', corresponding to the present day Corso Garibaldi, which is 120 m. away from the first urban decumanus, reconstructed along the northern alignment of the churches of S. Martino and S. Romano; the cardo maximus of the town, moreover, represents the urban prosecution of a centurial cardo.

• SOMMELLA P., GIULIANI C. F., La pianta di Lucca romana, Roma 1974
• CIAMPOLTRINI G., Aspetti della dinamica urbana a Lucca fra tarda repubblica e III secolo d.C., Contributi archeologici, in Città e monumenti dell'Italia antica, 1998