Description
The church of Vallico Sotto has ancient origins, in all probability its construction dates back to the year 1000. The first official evidence of the existence of this building is the Estimo of the Church of Lucca of 1260 in which it is included with the dedication to Saints James and Christopher and under the hegemony of the parish of Gallicano. Vallico Sotto became independent of that pieve in 1357 on the occasion of the elevation to parish of the village church, which was assigned the final dedication to St. James Major.
It has a three-nave structure divided by two orders of Ionic-style columns made of local stone. The nave ends with an apse, where a wooden choir and, after years of restoration resulting from the theft of some parts in the early 1980s, the valuable 15th-century triptych depicting the Madonna and Child between Saints Jacopo and Christopher, attributed to the artist Bernardino del Castelletto, dated 1471, find their place. In the side aisles we find three altars on each side showing a Baroque style and two baptismal fonts, one of which is made of stone and dates back to 1337, the year in which the church, before the Pievania of Gallicano, obtained from the bishop the concession to baptize locally instead of at the Pieve. In all probability in the early 1700s the building underwent restoration, as evidenced by the date 1711 carved on the lintel of the central entrance door. The church presents a rather varied decorative apparatus as the result of multiple remodeling over time, resulting in an overlapping of techniques and styles. Construction of the bell tower was completed in 1532; the tower was then renovated in 1822. Testifying to both of these records are two marble plaques above the entrance door to the tower. In 2004, restoration work was undertaken on the church consisting mostly of rebuilding all the exterior facades and restoring part of the roof. Following the 2013 earthquake, the presbytery is barred from access due to the danger of plaster detachment from the vaults.
