The Crucifix of Lucca

The Holy Face of Lucca, an 8-foot-tall crucifix with a central role in Christian iconography, has survived more than 1,000 years. Local legend has it that this crucifix was carved at the time of the crucifixion by Nicodemus, and that it arrived in Lucca miraculously in 782. An Italian bishop discovered it on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The crucifix was put on a ship with no crew and miraculously set sail to the Tuscan coast, where an angel helped guide the relic to its final home in a cathedral in Lucca. For centuries, in a picturesque Tuscan town near the Mediterranean coast, legions of pilgrims came to venerate one of Christendom’s most treasured relics — an eight-foot-tall wooden crucifix known as the “Volto Santo de Lucca.” (The Holy Face of Lucca.) 

The crucifix was shown to be the oldest surviving wooden carving in Europe. And it remains in remarkable condition, the downcast eyes of Christ on the cross still captured in dramatic detail. It is considered as a symbol of pride for a city-state that remained an independent republic for seven centuries, with a celestial defender on its side. By the late Middle Ages, the image was so well known in Northern Europe that it became an object of devotion of the French nobility. “By the face of Lucca” was an oath sworn by William II of England and it is also mentioned in Dante’s Inferno.