Lucca - Town Walls

The old town of Lucca is enclosed within a circuit of walls 4.195km/2.5mi long with eleven bastions (baluardi) and six gates. The walls, 12m/39ft high and 30m/98ft thick at the base, were built by Flemish engineers between 1504 and 1645 to protect the rectangular area of the town (1,500m/1,640yd long by 900m/985yd across). Between 1823 and 1832 Maria Luigia of Bourbon, Duchess of Parma, had the old fortifications converted into a public garden.