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VIA
DELL'ACQUEDOTTO
AND THE OUTLYING DISTRICT OF
FORNACETTA
(ItinerarY n° 5)
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The Kennedy Brothers Park.
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The
Via dell'Acquedotto (Aqueduct) leads into the old town and to a
complex of schools which includes a middle school, a high school,
a technical school and a hotel training school. The road begins
at the Viale Cesare Biondi and, after a few hundred metres, crosses
the Via del Giardino and the gateway to the 18th Century park of
Villa Gherardi. This building has been completed renovated and today
houses part of the Istituto Professionale Alberghiero, the hotel
training school which is the only one of its kind in the Province
of Lucca.
The
road then follows the arches of the old aqueduct which was constructed
in 1501 to provide water for Barga after the capture of their water
source at Rupine. On the right you can look down on the park which
was built under the auspices of the then President of the Pro Loco,
Pietro Marroni, and which was later dedicated to the Kennedy Brothers.
After this, the road passes under the aqueduct, climbs up past Porta
Macchiaia and leads to the outlying district of Fornacetta.
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Fornacetta
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Here
you will find the Church of Madonna Assunta (Our Lady of the Assumption),
which is said to have been built on the ruins of a "hostel"
where pilgrims had been given refuge as far back as the 13th Century.
In
the church is an organ, parts of which, the experts say, date back
to the early 1500's. A few years ago, the instrument was beautifully
restored by Glauco Ghilardi from Lucca.
In
the 18th Century there was a forge at Fornacetta which made many
different kinds of articles, from household wares to religious works
of art, but it was not used, as was once thought, by the Della Robbia
Brothers.
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SURPRISE "OUTSIDER" WINS
