Lecce is a noble and elegant city located in Salento, in South of Puglia, and it encloses among the narrow alleys, the churches, the monuments and the palaces, the richness and the prestige of a millenial history.
Definitively marked by the Lecce Baroque architecture, the city offers a heritage of incomparable beauty, and that’s the reason why it is called the “Florence of the South”.
It is precisely from the 1500s to the 1700s that Lecce lives one of its best moments, when artists and intellectuals made it an important centre of art and culture giving life to a new artistic movement, the Lecce Baroque style, following the baroque taste developed in the rest of Italy. In Salento the Baroque style learns to use the features of the leccese stone, a limestone particularly moldable and solid at the same time, with a golden colour. And it’s thanks to the quality of these stones that the artists will be able to give their works a special and unique movement and decoration.
It is enough just to look at the facade of the Basilica of Santa Croce to realize the mastery.
Santa Croce Basilica, infact, is the symbol of the Lecce Baroque style, in which every architectural element perfectly carved and placed brings a specific meaning.
Another symbolic location is surely Piazza Duomo with the Cathedral, embellished by two facades, the Seminary Palace, the Bishop Palace with the typical arched porch, and the Bell Tower, a previous watchtower.
In the heart of the old town centre is Piazza Sant’Oronzo, where the 29 metres high column dedicated to the Patron Saint lies. Here is focused an extraordinary stratification of different styles and period of times.
Nearby is also preserved the Castle of Carlo V, which dates back to the mid 1500s, and it’s one of the best examples of military architecture in Puglia.
You can’t miss a tasting of the local specialties to enjoy the Lecce experience: the leccese pasticciotto, a short pastry filled up with custard, the Lecce coffee, an iced espresso blended with almonds milk, or a frisa, a crunchy delicacy prepared with barley wheat, or a dish of ciceri and tria, a typical Salento pasta with chickpeas.
viaggieitinerari... in Puglia by Valeria Dicarlo 