Via Matildica del Volto Santo (tappa Barga)

The Via Matildica del Volto Santo is a pilgrimage route linking Mantua and Lucca, associated with the historical legacy of Matilde di Canossa. Its passage through Barga connects the town's religious heritage with the wider Garfagnana and Lucchese landscape.

Why it matters

The Via Matildica del Volto Santo links Mantua with Lucca, whose cathedral preserves the carved wooden crucifix that gives the route its name. Route sources describe a journey across Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, through the Garfagnana and Media Valle del Serchio. Its historic sections include the Via del Preziosissimo Sangue, the Cammino di San Pellegrino and the Via del Volto Santo, which passes through Barga on the approach to Lucca.

For Barga, the route connects the town's medieval walls, cathedral and the Pieve di Loppia, reflecting the area's religious and civic history.

What to notice

The route's cultural landmarks include Barga's walled borgo and cathedral, the Pieve di Loppia, the ancient stone bridge at Filecchio, and the Volto Santo in Lucca's Duomo di San Martino. The latter is also known as the "Cristo nero dei lucchesi."

Context and history

The route revives the paths that linked the lands of Matilde di Canossa, the great eleventh-century feudal power who backed the papacy and peppered her territories with churches, pievi and hospitals. From Mantua — where tradition says she was born — the walk runs south through the Po plain to Reggio Emilia (the Preziosissimo Sangue tract), climbs the Apennine heartland of her castles to San Pellegrino in Alpe (the Cammino di San Pellegrino), and finally follows the Via del Volto Santo through the Garfagnana towards Lucca. The final secular devotion of that last tract converges on the wooden crucifix of Lucca cathedral, one of the most venerated images of medieval Italy.

Barga's position between the Garfagnana centres and the Lucchese hills is reflected in the route's association with the medieval Pieve di Loppia and Ponte della Maddalena, also known as the Devil's Bridge. The Via Matildica del Volto Santo is included among the official Jubilee pilgrimage routes.