Lucca - San Pietro Somaldi

A little way east of the Piazza del Mercato, in a triangular piazza, is the Church of San Pietro Somaldi, an aisled basilica of the 12th century occupying the site of an earlier church which is believed to have been built by the Lombards in the eighth century. The facade, with its banding of white and gray marble and its two tiers of delicately articulated loggias, dates from 1248. On the lintel of the central doorway is a representation of St Peter receiving the keys by Guido da Como (1203). On the north side of the church is a plain brick campanile. The vaulting (partly recently renewed) which spans the three-aisled interior of the basilica, rests on massive square columns; on the left-hand side the third column bears the date 1199. In the south aisle is a 12th century fresco of the Madonna.