Basilica of San Frediano

History Basilica San Frediano

The Original Church of the VIth Century

According to tradition, it was Bishop Frediano himself who founded the primitive church in this place in the 6th century, dedicating it to S.Vincenzo. It assumed the title of S. Frediano when, in the eighth century, the remains of the Holy bishop they were placed in its crypt. The Church stood just outside the walls of the Roman walls, near the North Gate and had, according to general use, the façade turned to the West. In ancient memories it is called "Basilica Langobardorum" and the remaining documents confirm the importance it had in the Longobard period.

The reconstruction of the twelfth century

In the first half of the twelfth century S.Frediano, like almost all the churches of Lucca, was entirely rebuilt and had for urbanistic reasons, the opposite orientation to that of the previous building. In the first decades of the following century, a general rise of the factory (about 3.30 m) was carried out, involving the partial reconstruction of the apse and the raising of the façade (with the addition of the mosaic).
There were then, with the annexation of adjacent buildings and the opening of new chapels in the sides, fragmentary expansions that lasted until the sixteenth century.

There Basilica of San Frediano was consecrated by Pope Eugene III in 1147.

The baptismal font of the Basilica of San Frediano in Lucca

One of the most famous monuments of Lucca is certainly the baptismal font of San Frediano. It must be said that most probably it is not a baptismal font but a lustral source, a fountain.
The fountain originally had to be placed outside the Basilica.
Later for a long time only the tub was inside the Basilica and instead of the cup was placed the statue of St. John the Baptist which is now on the wall of the counter-façade.

The authors of the source are considered 3: Maestro Roberto (whose signature is on the tub "Me fecit Robertus", Master of the Stories of Moses, Master of the Months and of the Apostles.

At the bottom of the fountain are the stories of Moses' life in the cup and in the lid the months and the Apostles are represented.
Among the stories of Moses and in particular in the part that speaks of the flight from Egypt there is one of the great mysteries of Lucca: A rider has his legs looking from the opposite side to the rest of the body. It is unlikely that this is a mistake but we will go into another article.