Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi

The Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, housed in a 15th-century villa, showcases art from the 8th century BC to the 18th century, including works by local and foreign artists.

Planning your visit

Villa Guinigi was the suburban residence of Paolo Guinigi, who ruled Lucca from 1400 to 1430, and it is one of the few surviving grand houses of the Italian late Gothic — the brick loggia and windows survive largely intact.

The national collection inside runs from Ligurian and Etruscan archaeology through Roman material to the medieval and Renaissance art of Lucca itself: Romanesque sculpture from the city's churches, painted crosses, intarsia panels from the cathedral, and paintings by Matteo Civitali, Fra Bartolomeo and Pompeo Batoni.

Lucca was an independent republic for centuries, wealthy from silk, and the art here is the product of that self-contained tradition rather than of Florence or Pisa.

The Palazzo Mansi holds the picture gallery under the same administration.

The villa sits inside the walls at the eastern edge. Allow ninety minutes. Current availability is listed below.