LECCE - THE FLORENCE OF THE SOUTH:

The very heart of the Salento, its very beating and most lively soul, but at the same time its haughtiest and most aristocratic face, is Lecce.

Explore on the next pages the beauties of the city!

The Salento is situated eastwards, at the very edge of Apulia and is surrounded by two seas - the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea. Winds and scents spread all around villages, towns, rural landscapes and on the top of olive trees, on the white roofs of farm-houses as well as on the sighting towers along the coastline… It’s a territory rich in histories like the one about the rupestrian paintings in the Deers’ Cave or the one about the mysterious dolmens which you can find all around the country…

It’s a territory rich in art: here you can find both the magnificent Romanesque style of the Cathedral in Otranto along with its precious mosaics, and the lively Baroque style of the monuments in Lecce, whose greatness is due to the local stone, which is very crumbly and soft like no other stone… It’s a country rich in tales like the one about Aeneas’ landing by the inlet of Porto Badisco, which stands for the very first step  which made Rome as well as the whole western civilization great… It’s a territory rich in ancient traditions which have survived throughout the centuries, like “tarantismo” - a magical and religious habit at the same time – along with its typical music … It’s a territory rich in visions, suggestions, strong colours, deep scents and blinding lights: you will discover this by means of your senses, living between mystery and reality, between every day life and fairy-tales.
However, the very heart of the Salento, its very beating and most lively soul, but at the same time its haughtiest and most aristocratic face, is Lecce. It’s a city made of stone, a magical city as if it was an illusionist’s game, a city rich in shadows as well as in white flashes, in both gentle and arabesque or foamy architectural styles, a learned as well as a lazy city, a city rich in theatres and a perky and fanciful city.

By visiting the town centre, which is rich in magnificent and unexpected foreshortenings, you could get lost within its tortuous little streets for nobody can recognize these places since they keep on changing over and over again: here you get the impression that time passes slowly and that noise disappears within a peaceful atmosphere rich in suggestions. So, you could follow a track or an itinerary so that streets, churches, palaces, squares and shops become many enchanting little worlds opening to your eyes and to your wonder.

You can cross Porta Napoli, also known as Triumphal Arch, one of the four gates to the old town centre, finished in 1548 and dedicated to Emperor Charles V, who endowed Lecce with strong walls and with a castle which could discourage the Turks from attacking the city. Through Porta Napoli you can enter the very old town centre passing by a street which in 1700 stood for one of the most important streets in the city: it is dedicated to a famous Enlightenment thinker from Salento, i.e. Giuseppe Palmieri. Walking along this street, one gets to the very “fancy sweet-box” of Lecce, i.e. “Teatro Paisiello”, a theatre which has been built in less than two months and that was unveiled in 1759 with the name of “New Theatre”. It later became a property of the municipality of Lecce, which enlarged it and made it more beautiful. The theatre, dedicated to a renowned musician from Taranto - Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) – was unveiled in 1871. In its foyer there is a piece of rare workmanship: the golden upright graven piano belonging to the renowned tenor Tito Schipa (1888-1965).

 

Still nowadays when you mention this extraordinary “nightingale” from Lecce, the very son of this city (born in the famous district “delle Scalze”), you can evoke his enchanting melodies, you can still listen to them walking along these streets, entering the front gates of these baroque palaces… Here, under a light blue clear sky, in this little precious shell surrounded by dry lowlands, heap of stones, small dry-stone walls, olive-trees, far away from the sea… the inhabitants are coy and they are even proud of their confinement, have discreet and refined manners – completely different from the concrete commercial manners of the inhabitants of Bari as well as absolutely atypical for a very southern city like Lecce – and keep on looking inside themselves, staring at whatever is beautiful, loving music and songs because of their introspective, freeing and healing skills.

You can get an idea of this love for beauty as soon as you turn at each street’s corner and find yourself in front of wonderful palaces. These works of art were commissioned by local upper-class families, feudal vassals, rich merchants as well as by different religious orders. An example of the richness of our lay architecture is near “Teatro Paisiello”: the sober Palmieri Palace, a private house dating back to 1500 and rearranged in the 18th century, with its external Catalan-Durazzo’s portal, its huge façade rich in balconies and its bright stairs. It is a building with a great historical meaning since it gave hospitality to Giuseppe Bonaparte in 1807 and to Gioacchino Murat in 1813 (the latter engraved his name on a mirror using his ring’s diamond as a sign of the hospitality he received here). In the garden next to the palace there is an old hypogeum, i.e. an underground area decorated with sculptures, flowers and animals, whose origin is not known for sure (it may date back to the 4th or to the 2nd/1st century b. C.). 

You can also admire the sensual caryatids set into the portal of the 18th century-old  Marrese Palace; the measured and sober facade of Lanzilao Palace; the ashlar of Loffredo-Adorno Palace (1568), which stands for one of the most famous palaces in the city: its exterior side is smooth, whereas its entrance-hall is faceted; the large balconies supported by corbels decorated with allegorical animals and the angular column of Personè Palace; the liberty style of the wonderful window set in a balcony full of flowers in Casotti Palace; and then Spada Palace, Costantini Palace, Gorgoni Palace, Della Ratta Palace, Brunetti Palace…

If you go back going along via Palmieri, you can see that, like any other street, alley or square in Lecce, you get the impression that it also has been conceived to take you to the most precious square in the whole city: Piazza Duomo, a closed square, though rich, geometrical and elegant. By night it offers a spectacular view which leaves you breathless: it is lightened from the ground and it has harmonious music-like lines.

Three big statues on both sides surmount the propylaeums at the entrance to the square, which has been rebuilt and widened on Bishop Alfonso Sozi Carafa’s charge in 1761. The buildings overlooking the square are the Cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace on one side and the Church Tower and the Seminary’s Palace on the other side.
The Cathedral was completely rebuilt in the years 1659-70 by Giuseppe Zimbalo on Bishop Pappacoda’s charge. The main façade is almost plainly decorated, whereas the side-facade is richly decorated for it is in front of the square’s entrance. In spite of this, it is neither a beautiful nor a high-class façade: it is almost artificial and overloaded, but it doesn’t clash with the elegance of the Seminary - which stands for the Square’s pearl -. On the contrary, it helps it glowing more and more.

The interior part of the Cathedral has a Latin cross with a nave and two aisles. It also has twelve altars, apart from the high one, and many paintings by famous artists. At the top of the main nave and the transept there is a wonderful wooden ceiling with carved golden lacunars dating back to 1685, where Giuseppe da Brindisi’s paintings are set. At the end of the apse you can admire the magnificent, luxurious high altar of Parian marble and bronze; the three paintings set within the choir (included the big one representing the Assunta -1759) were assigned to Oronzo Tiso (1730-1800), an artist from the School of art in Naples (1759).

The Bishop’s Palace, the natural continuation of the Cathedral’s main façade, is a work of art by Emanuele Manieri dating back to the eighteenth century, whose architecture is elegant and refined: it looks like a theatre’s wing and it is often used as a theatre’s wing. On a high ashlar-base there is a great arched portico where you can see the imperious coat of arms belonging to Bishop Carafa who had ordered it. Some marble busts representing famous people give a sense of history to the baluster surmounted, in the central part, by one of the first public clocks produced by Domenico Panico, an artist from Lecce.
A further enchanting monument is the Seminary with its sober, refined, elegant, though mighty façade. This building’s distinction mirrors the style of the inhabitants of Lecce: a refined and “aristocratic” style expressed in their customs and behaviour as well as in the way they express themselves. The building was commissioned by the Bishops Pignatelli, designed by Giuseppe Cino at the end of the 17th century and unveiled in 1709. This Palace has one of the most enchanting Baroque facades in the city with its elegant three-arched loggia situated at the top of the portal and the two-store-windows’ refined engraving. As soon as you get to the inner yard, by the shadow of some citrus trees, you must stop and stare at the very Baroque jewel of Lecce, the famous “Pozzo del Cino”: a well finely decorated with flowers and fruits’ friezes and festoons crowned with a statue representing a woman who looks like she is dancing gently on a thin bow held up by wonderful puttos.

As soon as you go out of the Seminary, you find yourself in front of the 70 metres-high Church Tower: it was built by the architect Zimbalo between 1661 and 1682; it’s thin and high and has balusters, pavilions, pyramidal-like steeples and very refined decorations. At its top there is a kind of little octagonal temple surmounted by a cupola with its four spires. On the top of it is a turning flag portraying S. Oronzo (the patron of Lecce) who seems like looking at the crowded streets all around the area. On the square’s two sides are some ground-floor-shops and some small terraces: these stand for signs of a population who ennobles itself within a mighty frame.