Walls of Lucca

The walls of Lucca are a series of stone, brick, and earthwork fortifications surrounding the central city of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. They are among the best preserved Renaissance fortifications in Europe, and at 4 kilometers and 223 meters in circumference they are the second largest intact example of a fully walled Renaissance city after Nicosia, Cyprus. The current walls of Lucca, which replaced earlier medieval and Roman fortifications, are the result of a construction campaign that started on May 7, 1504 and ended a century and a half later in 1648, with additional structural updates in the second half of the seventeenth century based on new knowledge and construction techniques. These walls play an important role in the cultural identity of the city of Lucca and its surroundings, and as a physical monument to the region's history, and Lucca's longstanding independence as a republic.