Le Colonne restaurant in Matraia - ExCasa of Fascio

"Le Colonne" restaurant in Matraia are a point of reference for the people of Lucca who love good home cooking and for tourists who are now more and more present in the farmhouses in the area.

The restaurant is in a strategic area in the hamlet of Matraria on the Pizzorna road and only 4 kilometers from the Lucca plain.

From the large terrace of the restaurant you have a magnificent view over the entire plain of Lucca, a magnificent basin surrounded by olive trees that give the famous Lucca oil.

Start of the renovation of the former beam house
"The columns" will become a multipurpose center for tourists and citizens Relaxation center, bike sharing, library and much more: restyling completed in 2018

A new and quality life. The Municipality has given the green light to the renovation and restoration project of the former "beam house", in the village of Matraia. A very ambitious project that does not stop at a simple conservative redevelopment of the structure that has been in dilapidated conditions for years. The large building, also known as the "columns", will be transformed into a multipurpose center for both tourists who love greenery and citizens. The final and executive project was approved by the municipal council after the approval of the Superintendency. The first interventions are planned as early as 2016 and the work is expected to be completed by 2018.

Terrace and relaxation. There are several areas involved, from tourism to social and cultural. And therefore several interventions, including the transformation of the roof, now a "hut", into a terrace where you can sunbathe, a corner of relaxation immersed in the green hills of Matraia. On the ground floor there is a tourist information point, a bike sharing station to take a bike and go around along the paths of the north of the territory and visit the other countries. Also a small relaxation center with solarium and showers. There will also be a library and playroom, a conference room and a room addressed to local associations. In addition, there is also a listening center and an Ecco Fatto point for some services in the most disadvantaged areas and a stamp point for pilgrims on the Via Francigena. The structure will be completely disable friendly, therefore accessible to both the disabled and the blind. Inside there is also a bar and restaurant and a "garden of taste". After the recovery of Palazzo Boccella in San Gennaro, which houses the Made (the high school of cooking training and tourist hospitality), it would therefore be another tourist-cultural center.

"The redevelopment of the Colonne di Matraia building goes to recover a property in a state of decay and will be the first step towards the construction of a multifunctional center with services for both tourists and citizens - explains the councilor for public works Gabriele Bove - and with an important induced for the whole territory and to make this structure a gateway to the hilly area, one of the prestigious areas from the tourist and cultural point of view ». "The recovery of the" Columns ", which is part of the electoral program, is expected by the inhabitants," adds the municipal councilor Mauro Rocchi (Pd).

Times. The Municipality will participate in a tender for the redevelopment of degraded areas launched by the Council of Ministers. The deadline for submitting projects expired yesterday and the implementation schedule is linked to a financing plan spread over three years. The institution in Piazza Aldo Moro will finance the project with an initial 100 thousand euros for the accommodation of the structure deteriorated by the passing of the years and by bad weather. 200 thousand euros from the call, another 200 thousand from banking foundations and other entities. The house of the fasces, with its recognizable architecture of the twenty years, was inaugurated in 1936. Then the passage from the party

national fascist state property at the end of the war and in 1958 acquired by resolution of the Municipality of Capannori for the sum of 2 million and 600 thousand lire. Until the 1990s, part of it was used as an elementary school and still today as a polling station.

(by Nicola Nucci from iltirreno.gelocal.it on 01 December 2015)

Map: Le Colonne restaurant in Matraia - ExCasa of Fascio