L’archivio che non c’è. Le terme di Bagni di Lucca

Historically, the “vacancies” and “fillings” of archives have been important carriers of meaning, constituting knowledge for whom goes through them, and reflecting an action, or a series of actions, that unfolds through time not always in a linear way. This seems to be the case for the thermal archive of Bagni di Lucca. These baths, expanded and restored initially by the Baciocchi administration, and later by the Borbone, became a place of socialization and leisure, fostering a significant strengthening of the urban fabric, which was further facilitated by the opening of a gaming hall in the first half of the 19th century. The proposed intervention will aim to highlight the importance of the thermal archive of Bagni di Lucca, by now destroyed, as it has been extensively consulted for study and publishing purposes, serving thus as indirect source of that very sedimentation of archival evidence.