Oratory of San Iacopo

The oratory was most likely built around the year 1000, and had a nearby building that served as a hospital to accommodate wayfarers and pilgrims. The first official document that refers to the oratory is the land registry of the diocese of Lucca in 1260. The building has the typical characteristics of Romanesque architecture: rectangular plan, semicircular apse, gabled front, narrow single-lancet windows and squared stone walls with regular texture. From the analysis of the wall texture it can be seen that the oratory has undergone few invasive restorations, and that they were certainly distant from each other in time. However, thanks to the reading of various pastoral visits, the building is often described in a state of semi-abandonment. Some examples are the reports of the visits of 1556 and 1598 in which it is possible to read respectively: 'The church is partly uncovered and has a house near this church that is levelled. There is no one in it and there is no hospitality because it is in a very harsh place, that is, in the Alps and is two miles from the church of S. Maria and the road is dangerous for those who go up there on horseback'; and again 'In this parish is the hospital of Lucese whose oratory remains open. It is in bad condition and the hospital rooms have collapsed'.