The church of San Michele Arcangelo in Sant'Angelo in Campo is located about 3 km from the city walls of Lucca. It is first mentioned in a parchment from the Diocesan Archive of Lucca that dates back to 821.
At that time the village was called Sant'Angelo in Cornuta, because the branch of the river that passed nearby, the Ausercolus, made a hairpin bend that looked like a horn. Only in the 11th century Sant'Angelo began to be called “in Campo” and no longer “in Cornuta”.


 





                         - Eighth Century stone capital discovered in the San Michele Arcangelo Church of Sant’Angelo in Campo -

The ancient chapel of Langobard origin (the first church of Sant'Angelo) in 1161 passed under the control of the Abbey of San Michele in Quiesa (Lucca). This rich monastery, belonging to the Diocese of Pisa, had a new (second) church erected in Sant’Angelo in Romanesque style; a part of its ancient stone wall with a monofora is today still visible on the south side of the present church. In 1181 Biduino, a Ticinese sculptor who was in Pisa working in Piazza dei Miracoli, was commissioned to build a stone architrave for the main entrance door of the new church in Sant’Angelo. On the architrave, which is now a private collection of Palazzo Mazzarosa in Lucca, is engraved “The entrance of Christ into Jerusalem” and is signed by the artist with these words:  HOC OPUS PEREGIT MAGISTER BIDUINUS.







                                                                                      - The architrave of Biduino -
In 1326 the flatland of Lucca was invaded by the Florentine army who plundered the village located outside the walls. The Sant'Angelo church was looted and set on fire, but the village refurnished the church and replaced the bells that had been taken away by the Florentines.

In 1408 the Monastery of San Michele in Quiesa was incorporated by the Chapter of the Cathedral of Lucca and consequently, also the Parish of San Michele Arcangelo of Sant'Angelo in Campo passed under its control .
Between 1593 and 1595 the Sienese painter Pietro Sorri created an oil on canvas on behalf of the church of Sant'Angelo in Campo, creating a painting portraying the Crucifixion of Saints Sebastian and Rocco, whose dimensions are 2.27 m. in height and 1.65 m. in width. The work of art cost 35 gold shields.

In 1799, “during the disastrous times of the French government in Italy, times in which enemies of Christianity destroyed Churches, a new and bigger church was constructed in Sant’Angelo in Campo” (quote from a historical document found in the parish archives).
In 1807, at the decision of Princess Elisa Baciocchi, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, who governed the Principality of Lucca which included Piombino and the city of Massa, Sant'Angelo in Campo became the capital of the new Municipality of Sant'Angelo which, in addition to Sant'Angelo in Campo, included the village of Sant'Anna, San Donato, Nave, Montuolo, Cerasomma, Fagnano, Gattaiola, Vicopelago and Pozzuolo for a total of about 5,500 inhabitants. In turn Jacopo Landucci of Sant'Angelo in Campo was appointed Mayor (or Maire in French) and after about 8 years, in 1815, the Municipality of Sant'Angelo was incorporated by the Municipality of Lucca.

In 1818 the new church of San Michele Arcangelo in Sant'Angelo in Campo was consecrated. During the Christmas season of 1820 Jacopo Landucci, former mayor of the extinct municipality, on behalf of Sant'Angelo Parish went to the city of Massa to see the altars of the transepts (left and right) of the ancient basilica of San Pietro in Bagnara, located where Piazza Aranci is now and demolished by the Princess of Lucca Elisa Baciocchi in 1808. He chose to buy the altar in the  right transept, dedicated to the Madonna of the Rosary, to decorate the high altar in the new Sant’Angelo church. He did, however, want the ancon from the altar of the Crucifix, with the bas-relief sculpted in 1861 by the expert Giovanni Lazzoni from Carrara. The altar, made of polychrome marble and coupled columns, reflected the Roman Baroque style. In the XVII century it was commissioned by Cardinal Alderano Cybo Malaspina (Vatican Secretary of State and brother to the Duke of Massa Alberico II) to the grand architect of Lucca, don Domenico Martinelli, at the time lecturer of architecture and prospective at the prestigious Academy of San Luca in Rome. In order to purchase the altar, the Parish of Sant’Angelo had to pay 520 silver Francesconi. A year later, Jacopo Landucci returned to Massa on behalf of the canonries of San Michele in Foro, to buy the other twin altar, that of the left transept, that can be admired today in Lucca in the left transept of the basilica of San Michele in Foro.



















- Main altar of the Church of San Michele Arcangelo -
 
In 1835 the church of Sant'Angelo in Campo commissioned Giosuè Agati for the construction of a new and precious organ. The contract was signed in Pistoia before a notary by Giosuè Agati, his son Nicomede and by the deputies of the Church of Sant'Angelo (Michele Landucci, Lorenzo Puccinelli and Jacopo Landucci). The price of the work was fixed in 740 silver Francesconi.
















    - Organ built by the firm Giosuè and Nicomede Agati of Pistoia in 1836 -

Between 1861 and 1863 the new bell tower was built, which according to the project should have been taller than the bell higher of the basilica of San Frediano in Lucca. During its construction, however, the bell tower revealed the fragility of its foundation on the south side towards which it began to lean. The project was therefore revised and the parishioners had to settle for a lower bell tower than the one planned.
 
In the last 150 years, the extraordinary maintenance interventions carried out in the church, in the chapel of San Giuseppe, in the Sacristy and in the rectory have been very demanding. In 2002, another organ facing the high altar was installed in the church of Sant'Angelo. It is an electronic and modern organ that can be played from presbytery during liturgies. It is composed of 3,500 tin and lead spotted pipes, 45 organ stops, three chromatic consoles in bone and ebony of 58 keys and a radiating concave pedalboard with 32 pedals.
It was constructed by the firm F.lli Marin in Genoa and cost approximately €250,000, but at no cost to the village, as it was donated entirely by don Arcangelo Del Carlo, parish priest for 36 years of the church of San Michele Arcangelo in Sant’Angelo in Campo, who passed away on January 12th 2008.
















                                                             

 - Electronic organ built in 2002 by the F.lli Marin firm of Genoa -