The Holy Face of Lucca (Volto Santo di Lucca) is a venerated wooden corpus of a crucifix, located in the free-standing octagonal Carrara marble chapel (the tempietto or "little temple"), which was built in 1484 by Matteo Civitali, the sculptor-architect of Lucca, to contain it. The tempietto stands in the right-hand nave of the cathedral of San Martino in Lucca, Italy. Medieval legends stated that it had been sculpted by that Nicodemus who assisted Joseph of Arimathea in depositing Christ in the tomb and specifically dated its arrival in Lucca to AD 742.
Dante mentions the Volto Santo of Lucca in his Inferno, Canto XXI, where a demon cries:
- Qui non ha luogo il Volto Santo!
- qui si nuota altrimenti che nel Serchio.
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