Lying on a plain at the foot of the Salento plateau is Lecce - known as the "Florence of the South" - one of the most interesting cities of the region for its typically seventeenth-century architectural features. Lecce knows how to amaze and fascinate those who wander through the narrow streets of the historic center. Its ancient Messapian origins and the archaeological remains of Roman domination are mixed in fact with the richness and exuberance of the baroque of the churches and palaces of the center.
The architectural development and decorative enrichment of the facades was particularly fruitful during the Kingdom of Naples (XVII century) and characterized the Apulian capital during this period with a great development in the construction of buildings, monuments and aristocratic palaces characterized by a sumptuous and rich ornamental and architectural scenography so original that it deserved a more precise definition: "Baroque of Lecce". A completely new style that flourished for the utilization of local Lecce stone, a type of ductile and mouldable limestone material, easy to inlay and with warm colors so that the imaginative and meticulous work of sculpture was facilitated.
The characteristic of Lecce baroque buildings is their playfulness: overflowing baskets of all kinds of fruits, floral compositions with imaginative geometric solutions, skates that dance and sing in a pleasure choreography. Lecce is not just baroque. Paper, straw, rags, glue and mortar - these are the poor materials that gave life to the papier-mâché of Lecce, used to make many statues of Madonnas and saints modeled between the 17th and 18th centuries. Some say they were originally a humble barber's pastime, but the fact remains that the fine art of modeling papier-mâché gained popularity and numerous craft workshops were created. The latter ones produced for the local churches, saints with highly expressive faces and poses often shown during religious processions. Today the long history of the production of papier-mâché in Lecce is narrated in the Museo della Cartapesta, in the Castle of Charles V.
Another symbol of Lecce and the entire Salento is the pasticciotto leccese, a traditional dessert, simple in its preparation with delicious taste, stuffed with custard, where it is possible to add delicious black cherries, enclosed in a casket of pastry. The pasticciotto is typically consumed in Lecce for breakfast instead of the classic brioches, a delicious sweet with an irresistible aroma that can also be enjoyed as a snack.
The streets of the center of Lecce are an open-air museum. One example is the splendid Piazza del Duomo, which houses the Duomo or the Cathedral of Maria SS. Assunta - with a bell tower and two façades, one very sober and the other richly decorated - the Episcopal palace, of the Renaissance period, with its splendid arcade, and the Seminary palace, particular for the facade decorated with ashlar and the characteristic internal cloister. Piazza Duomo, once used as a fortified citadel, is today considered the most elegant "living room" in the city. The grandeur of the Duomo, the work of Zimbalo, Cino and Penna, the tall five-story bell tower, the Palazzo Vescovile and the Palazzo del Seminario mark the perimeter of the square, one of the monumental works that best represents the magnificence of the Lecce style.
Within its perimeter Piazza Sant’Oronzo contains the city history. The Roman era is evidenced by the remains of the amphitheater which during the summer becomes the exceptional stage for theatrical representations and, partially by the high column - on which stands the bronze statue of Saint Oronzo represented during the act of blessing - erected in the seventeenth century using part of the Roman columns positioned along the ancient Via Appia. Symbol of the Renaissance period is the Palazzo del Seggio, known as the "Sedile", now home to important art exhibitions, and the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, guardian of interesting frescoes and wooden works.
Close to the square there is the Castle of Charles V, a typical defensive construction presenting an internal refined architectural style to the rigors of the external lines. The imposing and majestic Porta Rudiae is crowned, instead, by the statues of Sant'Oronzo, Sant'Irene and San Domenico, with two pairs of columns positioned on both sides of the central arch and finally the Church of the Rosary that captivates for the artistic fantasy of its grand facade.
The Basilica of Santa Croce is where the inspiration of the "stonemasons" masters left their mark in the monumental façade that anticipates the beauty of the interior, a harmonious balance between the classical sobriety of Lecce Baroque splendor. Inside the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Lecce Baroque erupts in all its magnificence. Here the greatness of its architects, the mastery of its stonemasons, the flexibility of the Lecce stone finds its maximum expression; it was the most important construction site in Lecce between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and saw the succession of three generations of architects and workers. Triumph of flowers, fruits, twisted leaves, cherubs, allegorical figures with a large rose window in the center, the Basilica is precisely the manifesto of the Lecce Baroque, a veritable talking architecture. The basilica was started as early as 1353, but his patron, Walter VI of Brienne who died three years later; the work was resumed only in 1549 thanks to the architects Gabriele Riccardi, Giuseppe Zimbalo and Cesare Penna, all of them from Lecce, and thanks to the collaboration of numerous carvers and stonemasons. The work was completed just 150 years later, in 1695, confirming how ambitious the project was; the effects of their prolongation are evident in the stylistic ambiguity of the facade, in the lower sixteenth century and in the seventeenth century in the upper part.
The Roman theater of Lecce was accidentally discovered in 1929, during some works carried out in the gardens of two historic buildings in the city (Palazzo D'Arpe and Palazzo Romano). Closely related to the Roman amphitheater, in fact it was probably wanted by Augustus who, not yet an emperor, found refuge in Lupiae, ancient Lecce and as sign of gratitude he ordered the construction of both of them.
The church of San Matteo is particularly important in the landscape of Lecce for its façade, which, with the its curved line, partly concave, partly convex, differs from the canons of the Lecce Baroque, recalling instead the Roman Baroque of Borromini and in particularly the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. The architect of the temple was Achille Larducci, an architect from the Lombard environment, to whom Bishop Pappacoda commissioned the factory that was built between 1667 and 1700, in the area of a pre-existing convent of Tertiaries Franciscans (XV century). Probably the works were completed by Giuseppe Zimbalo due to the premature death of the Lombard architect.
It is one of the three access gates to the urban core. Built on an older entrance by Charles V, it was rebuilt in 1774 by the governor Tommaso Ruffo, as mentioned in the Latin inscription at the top. Pairs of columns with smooth stems resting on high bases, frame the fornix, to which is superimposed the coat of arms of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon as much as that of Lecce. A statue of Saint Blaise in episcopal clothes completes the artistic ornament of the gate.