Perhaps the most celebrated Baroque symbol of Lecce is the magnificent basilica of Santa Croce, which, almost concealed in the ancient urban fabric, rises on Via Umberto I. The building's superb façade admirably recounts the history of its choral con...

The elegant, composite front of the church of Santa Chiara faces onto the lecce square named in honour of Vittorio Emanuele II, rebuilt in 1694, it seems, to a plan by Giuseppe Cino. The unusual curved front opens out with refined simplicity in two o...

At the end of Perroni, in Lecce, stands the noteworthy church of San Matteo. "Pantheon of the Lecce Baroque", as the German Gregorovius defined it, it was rebuilt between 1667 and 1700 by Achille Carducci to an original plan compared to the great num...

Lecce boasts an interesting, rich religious'architectonic heritage; on the atmospheric via Libertini, stands the church of Santa Teresa, built with the adjoining monastery of the barefoot Carmelite fathers in 1620 by G. Zimbalo, also the creator of a...

About 15 km. to the south-east of Lecce, standing on the land of the village of Vernole, is the surprising fortified citadel of Acaja, the charm of its fascinating history still unchanged. In the area of the Le Cesine nature reserve, a splendid wetla...

Standing majestically in harmonious beauty among the other magnificent gems of art that line the perimeter of the eponymous piazza, the duomo of Lecce - dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary - has a characteristic transversal development wit...

The gastronomy of Lecce boasts the genuine flavours of the great, wholesome countryside tradition, meaning that the real protagonists of the table are vegetables, bread, pasta and olives, all enhanced by the pure taste of the valuable olive oil. Amon...

The Provincial Museum of Lecce is named after its founder Sigismondo Castromediano, duke of Cavallino, who first set it up in Puglia, in 1868 with its seat in the fascinating monastery of the Celestines; the oldest museum in Puglia, today it is house...

Picturesque Piazza del Duomo, the religious centre of the city and refined Baroque gem, opens out at the end of via Palmieri in the heart of Lecce. Approached through a single monumental funnel-shaped entry, supported by two columns and crowned by a ...

The very central Piazza Sant'Oronzo, the city's civil heart, as it appears today provides a very eloquent evidence to the evolution of the ancient history of the capital of Salento. Dedicated to the city's patron saint, the large square is dominated ...

Lecce still has three of its old gates opening in the defensive walls built for Charles V: porta Rudiae, the monumental porta Napoli, and finally, porta S. Biagio, together announcing and enclosing the city's fascinating historic centre. Opening on t...

In the heart of Lecce, facing via Vittorio Emanuele, rises the church of Sant'Irene, a fine example of the city's religious architecture. Also called the church of the Teatini, it was, in fact, built for the fathers of this order between 1591 and 16...

The vast architectonic heritage of Lecce surprises with its attractive noble houses, their aristocratic beauty relying on the plasticity of the typical local stone, transformed by the artists and masons' skilful creativity and testimony to a nobility...

At the centre of the city, rising massively, is the castle - in its present form - built for Charles V, as the converging point of the defensive walls of the same date: this bulwark fortified the most exposed side of the old town, the part facing the...

In the area to the north of the city - outside the sixteenth-century defensive walls that delineate the historic centre - stands the important church of SS Niccolò and Cataldo, a brilliant example of Norman architecture and the co-existence of differ...