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Close-up of the Volto del Santo on the well from the well in the homonymous Campiello (or courtyard). - (Venipedia / Bazzmann Archive)

A secluded place just off the busy Strada Nova, almost invisible to distracted passers-by, whose 'Volto Santo' sign attracts many curious onlookers.
Here, from around 1300 onwards, was home to a community of Lucchese, great importers of silk, who fled persecution by the Pisans.

Traveling along Strada Nova towards Rialto - in the San Marcuola district and immediately after the bridge named after an icon depicting the Blessed Virgin - you come across this small field on the left, distinguishable by its inscription "Volto Salto" visible directly from Rio Terà della Maddalena , on the jamb of a sub-portico.

This small courtyard, with access also from the Rio dei Servi, owes its name to the cult of the Holy Face of Jesus Christ, the name with which still today in Lucca it indicates a crucifix considered miraculous and which they worshiped in a cedar carved

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