Saint Peter in Marcigliano

San Pietro a Marcigliano

Mentioned in the Decime Register of 1260 as an employee of the parish church of Segromigno, the church of San Pietro a Marcigliano was probably built not much earlier. Its single-nave layout in fact seems a rather narrow derivation of that of the church of San Pancrazio, and with it of that - decidedly earlier and such as to be considered the prototype of the other two - of San Leonardo in Treponzio. From San Pancrazio the church of San Pietro takes up in particular the architectural decoration system that crowns the sides, the apse and the façade: a cornice supported by shelves in the first two cases, blind arches in the second. The shelves are in any case figurative, mostly with roughly sketched human protomes. The structure remained almost intact until the last century, with the exception of a 17^th century intervention inside, since then plastered and turned. Unfortunately, however, during the 20^th century the displacement of a landslide on which the building evidently insisted caused increasing problems of structural stability which finally forced the closure of the church itself and the transfer to the deposits of the National Museum of Villa Guinigi in Lucca of its furnishings . Among the transferred works we note - already placed behind the high altar in a complex presbyterial structure - a Madonna and Child with Saints Peter, Andrea and Giovannino, a work by Zacchia il Vecchio of 1548, and a canvas with the Crucifixion and four saints of Paolo Biancucci, painter active in the first half of the 17^th century. The situation gradually worsened, even leading to the collapse of the modern arcade that had been leaning against the facade. To attempt to remedy the dramatic situation of abandonment in which the building has since then, in 2009 an association was also formed (Per San Pietro) which, with the collaboration of FAI and the Capannori municipal administration, is trying to solicit in the competent authorities the development of possible solutions.