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Lecce is a city in the region of Puglia, and it is one of Southern Italy’s most visited and must-see cities. This is not least due to Lecce’s old town, which was largely built in exuberant Lecce Baroque. It was the local limestone that made possible the rich Baroque decorations that can be seen all over the city today.
Lecce is called the Florence of Southern Italy, and for good reason. A walk through the city’s streets and squares full of atmospheric architectural highlights. This applies not least to the churches with the cathedral, Santa Chiara, Santa Croce and San Matteo, but also Karl V’s large castle and other facilities.
Piazza Sant’Oronzo is one of the central squares of Lecce and it is an exciting place to see for several reasons. Here lies the city’s Roman amphitheater as a large open excavation that gives a glimpse of historic Lecce. You can also see the old Roman theater and visit the archaeological park in Rudiae.
Lecces is located on the Salento peninsula, where there are plenty of exciting excursion destinations. The cities of Gallipoli, Otranto and Brindisi all have their attractions, and the nature of Puglia with fantastic beaches and coastlines is also worth exploring. It is also not far from the big city of Bari and UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Alberobello and Matera.
The Cathedral of Lecce is one of the city’s Baroque masterpieces and stands as Lecce’s main church and the seat of the Archbishop. The cathedral was founded in 1144 and built afterwards, but the current baroque church was created by the architect Francesco Antonio Zimbalo in the years 1659-1689.
The church is located in the square Piazza del Duomo, which is the center of Lecce. The main entrance to the church is in the northern facade facing Piazza del Duomo, and the entrance portal is a beautiful piece of Baroque architecture. The entrance itself is flanked by statues depicting the saints Justus and Fortunato, while the entablature is made with a balustrade and a statue of St. Orontius in the middle.
When you enter the cathedral, you are greeted by a beautiful and impressive interior. The main altar is flanked by twelve side altars, most of which date from the 1670s-1680s. In the side altars you can see works by artists such as Oronzo Tiso, Gianserio Strafella and Giuseppe da Brindisi, and the latter also painted the works that are inlaid in the church’s beautiful coffered ceiling.
The church’s main altar was made of marble and gilded bronze, and it was consecrated in 1757. You can also see the cathedral’s 12th-century crypt, which was rebuilt in the 16th century. The church’s bell tower was built by the architect Giuseppe Zimbalo in 1661-1682. You can climb the tower, from where there is a fantastic view of Lecce and the Adriatic Sea.
Santa Croce is one of Lecce’s large and well-known baroque churches. It was built from 1549, but was only completed in 1695 after continuous completion. The result was created by several architects, and today you can see a church with a beautiful facade and a church space worth seeing.
The facade’s six columns carry an entablature with rich decoration consisting of, among other things, flowers, fruits, animals, grotesque figures and a rose window. Some of the figures represent the victorious Christian parties in the Naval Battle of Lepanto, where the fleet of the Holy League won over the Turks in 1571. The dragon was a symbol of Pope Gregory XIII, while the griffin stood for the Republic of Genoa and Hercules for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
On the facade, you can clearly see that the local sandstone has been good to work with to create classy baroque architecture. The church room contains, among other things, impressive columns, many beautiful altars, a fine wooden coffered ceiling and baroque art by Francesco Antonio Zimbalo.
This is one of Lecce’s central and most important squares. It is a good place to start a stroll in the city, and there are many sights in the large square, which was almost built around the large excavation with the city’s old amphitheater.
Piazza Sant’Oronzo is interesting as a fine setting for the amphitheatre, but there are also many other things to notice. Around the elliptical shape of the theater, during Italy’s Fascist era, period buildings were erected in the form of the Palazzo dell’Ina, which stands as a fine complement and in contrast to Lecce’s baroque.
You can also see a column in the square, the Colonna di Sant’Oronzo. Much of it comes from the nearby city of Brindisi, where the column stood as one of two columns that marked the end of the Via Appia from Rome. On top of the old Roman St. Orontius and blesses the city. Orontius became Lecce’s guardian angel after he supposedly protected the city from the plague in 1658.
By the column you can also see the arched building Palazzo del Seggio, also simply called Il Sedile. It was built in 1592 at the initiative of the Doge of Venice. Il Sedile was used for events, exhibitions and until 1851 as the seat of the city’s government. Today, the site functions as an exhibition building. Next to Il Sedile stands the small church, Chiesetta di San Marco. The church was built in 1543 by the city’s Venetian congregation, and is therefore dedicated to St. Mark.
In the square Piazza Sant’Oronzo in central Lecce you can see the excavated Roman amphitheater. The theater was built on the eastern edge of Roman Lupiae and could accommodate 14,000 spectators. There were originally two tiers of stands, but only the lower tiers have been preserved to this day.
The theater lay unknown for many centuries before construction workers came across it in 1901, when excavating had to be done in connection with the construction of a bank building. The theater was originally built under Emperor Hadrian in the 100s, and after the Roman era it was hidden under Lecce, who simply built on top of the theater.
The Chiesa di San Matteo is one of Lecce’s most beautiful churches in the noble Baroque, created with the local limestone by several of the contemporary architects. Bishop Luigi Pappacoda laid the foundation stone for the church in 1667, and the church was completed in 1700. The architect Achille Larducci di Salò designed the church.
The facade of the church is made up of several elements, including a lower convex part and an upper concave part. The inspiration came not least from the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome. On the facade, you can see a number of decorative details with the coat of arms of the Franciscan order as an example.
The interior of the church is an experience of Lecce’s baroque, where you can see fine sculptures, works of art, altars, etc. In the elliptical space, there are chapels along the walls with plinths where Placido Buffelli di Alessano’s statues of the twelve apostles stand. In the center stands the main altar with an exuberant decoration with small statues of saints.
This church stands as one of Lecce’s fine baroque churches, with an architecture and decoration that are typical representatives of the city’s special baroque. The history of the church goes back to 1429 and thus before the Baroque, but it was almost completely rebuilt by the architect Giuseppe Cino in the years 1687-1691.
There are niches, columns, plant motifs and much more on the decoration of the facade. Above the entrance door you can, among other things, see coat of arms of the Poor Clares. The church was named after Clara of Assisi, who founded the order of the Poor Clares in 1212, which was the strictest female order of the time. Further up there is a winged putto with an inscription of the year 1691 marking the completion of the church.
Inside the church, there is a sumptuous church room with a bright and open impression. Along the walls are altars typical of Lecce Baroque churches. The altars are richly decorated with twisted columns with angels, birds and many other details. Between the individual side chapels there are paintings depicting biblical scenes and saints such as Sankta Clara. The monumental high altar is also rich in ornate elements and adorned with two twisted columns and a statue of Sankta Clara in the central niche.
The Roman Theater of Lecce is beautifully located between other buildings in the center of Lecce. It is believed to have been built under Augustus in the 1st century BC, before Augustus became emperor. In its day, it could accommodate around 5,000 spectators, and it was hidden under the newer city for centuries.
In connection with some gardens at two mansions, the theater was discovered in 1929. The theater was built large, with an external diameter of 40 meters, and it is still quite well preserved. It was used for the performance of tragedies and comedies, while, for example, gladiator fights took place in the city’s amphitheater.
Porta Napoli is one of Lecce’s city gates to the old town. The gate was built as a triumphal arch in 1548 as a symbol of the Habsburg Empire and Emperor Charles V, who had expanded Lecce’s defenses. The name of the gate is due to the fact that this was the city’s entrance from the road leading to and from Naples.
The gate’s architecture was inspired by Roman triumphal arches, and Corinthian columns support the arch’s pediment. On this you can see Charles V’s imperial coat of arms. You can also see an inscription celebrating Charles V and the military’s victory over the Turks.
You can also notice the obelisk Obelisco di Re Ferdinando I in Piazza Angelo Rizzo immediately west of Porta Napoli. The obelisk was erected in 1822 in honor of Ferdinand I, who was king of the Two Sicilies. It was the sculptor Vito Carluccio who made the obelisk, on which, among other things, can see coats of arms for the districts of Brindisi, Gallipoli, Taranto and Lecce.
Lecce’s old castle is located on the eastern edge of the old town. The castle was built in the Middle Ages, but is today named after the German-Roman Emperor Karl V, who from 1539 expanded the castle considerably to the result that can be seen today.
Karl V had the former castle and some other buildings demolished to make way for a modern castle with contemporary military technology and architecture. The general engineer Gian Giacomo dell’Acaja of the Kingdom of Naples was in charge of the installation. The castle was built with thick walls and moats, which were filled up in 1872.
The castle was a military area until 1979, and in 1983 Castello di Lecce became the property of the city. Today, the large facility with its high walls and solid corner bastions is regularly used for various cultural events. You can therefore take a closer look at the old military architecture.
Porta San Biagio is a beautiful gate building that leads to and from Lecce’s old town. The gate is dedicated to Saint Blasius, who was bishop of Cappadocia in what was then Armenia. Blasius was born in Lecce and left the city in favor of Armenia along the very road where the Porta di San Biagio was built.
The current gate building was completed after a reconstruction in 1774. It is elegantly decorated with e.g. coat of arms of the city of Lecce and of King Ferdinand IV of Naples. At the top of the gate you can see a sculpture depicting Saint Blaise as a bishop.
Porta San Biagio is located at Piazza d’Italia, where you can see the war memorial Monumento dei Caduti. The memorial was erected from 1918 to 1950, and it stands in honor of those who fell during World War I and World War II.
This is a large baroque mansion designed by the architect Giuseppe Zimbalo. It was built 1659-1695 with a rich ornamentation, which can be seen in Zimbalo’s other works done in the same period and in the soft Lecce stones. Zimbalo also designed the neighboring building, the church Basilica di Santa Croce, and the mansion was designed as a kind of continuation of the church.
The palace was built as a monastery for Celestine monks, and for several centuries the buildings formed the framework for theological and philosophical studies. At the beginning of the 19th century, many religious monasteries were dissolved, and the Celestine monastery in Lecce was given to the city, which furnished the mansion as an administrative building. The place still has that role today, where it is the seat of Lecce’s prefecture and provincial administration.
This is one of the three preserved city gates that lead to the old city center of Lecce. It got its name from the historic town of Rudiae, which can be visited today as an archaeological site. Rudiae lay in the direction of the gate seen from present-day Lecce.
In this place, another gate stood until the end of the 17th century, when it collapsed. In 1703, Prospero Lubelli had the current gate built with beautiful decorations. Immediately above the four pillars you can see busts of the city’s founders; Malennio, Dauno, Euippa and Idomeneo. At the top is St. Orontius, who is the patron saint of the city, and he is flanked by St. Irene and St. Dominic.
MUSA Museo Storio-Archeologico is an interesting museum where you can experience parts of the history of the Salento region. The museum belongs to the University of Lecce, and one can see the exhibition as a journey through time from prehistory to the time of the Messapians to Greek and Roman Apulia.
The museum was established in 2007, and in the exhibitions you can see, for example, archaeological finds and various reproductions that show archaeological contexts.
Teatro Apollo is one of Lecce’s well-known theatres. The theater building was built by Maestro Vincenzo Cappello after designs in noble neoclassicism by the engineer Tassoni, who designed the theater with the column-supported entrance. The Sala Apollo stage was completed in 1912, and the theater was subsequently expanded with the Sala Arena.
The theater was in operation until the 1980s, when it closed in 1986. The stage was then closed for many years, and in 2003 the city of Lecce acquired the theater from Cappello’s heirs. The municipality initiated a major restoration project in 2008, and in 2017 the Teatro Apollo was reopened to the presence of, among others, the President of Italy.
Teatro Politeama Greco is the name of Lecce’s large and classical theater stage, which is home to operas, symphony concerts and theater productions. The theater was first called Politeama Principe di Napoli, but was named Greco after the family that built the theater.
It was Donato Greco who applied to the municipality for permission to build the theatre. His brother, the engineer Oronzo Greco, was in charge of the construction, which took place in 1882-1884, when it was inaugurated with the staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. The Teatro Politeama was expanded in the following decades; Among other things, with the foyer and Carmine Palmieri’s beautiful decoration of the theater’s ceiling.
In Lecce’s cathedral square there are various beautiful buildings. One of them is the former seminary that Giuseppe Cino designed at the initiative of Bishop Michele Pignatelli. The seminary was built from 1694 and inaugurated in 1709.
Today, the old seminary is set up as a museum of church art. You can through fine paintings, sculptures, silverware etc. experience fine art and at the same time get an impression of the church’s importance for life and art in Lecce.
Giardini Pubblici is Lecce’s central city park. Its history dates back to 1818, when the city government decided to build avenues and a park around the city’s historic center. From the 1830s, the park was laid out, and fruit trees, ornamental trees, roses etc. were planted.
The park was laid out like an Italian garden with a circular central plant surrounded by geometric flower beds. Since then, the park has been continuously modernized and planted and is today a wonderful breather in the city with many beautiful plants and facilities.
MUST Museo Storico Città di Lecce is an urban history museum located in an exciting setting in Lecce’s former convent of the Poor Clares. At the museum you can see various themed exhibitions about Lecce’s long and interesting history through changing eras. You can also experience various art at the museum.
The old monastery was built in the first half of the 15th century in the center of Lecce. The buildings functioned as a monastery until 1866, after which the monastery housed, among other things, public administration offices before it became the current museum.
This is one of Lecce’s newer churches, having been built in the years 1852-1858. Originally it was a smaller church outside Lecce’s city walls, but when Charles V’s walls were built in 1548, the church was newly built within the walls. In the 1567s it was expanded after a healing miracle.
The current church does not resemble the original 16th-century church, but is instead a rebuilt in neo-classicism, which was characteristic of contemporary times in the 19th century. It was the architect Giuseppe Maiola da Maddaloni who designed the church in its new and current form, where, among other things, can see a beautiful dome that is covered on the outside with polychrome majolica tiles.
Inside, the dome is decorated with floral motifs, and in the church room you can see stained glass windows and an interior that is stylistically greatly simplified compared to the city’s baroque churches.
Museo Sigismondo Castromediano is a museum named after Sigismondo Castromediano, who was, among other things, an archaeologist. Castromediano founded this museum in 1868 and it is the oldest public museum in the Puglia region.
Today, the province of Lecce owns the museum, and here you can experience exciting archaeological collections from Salento. There is also a painting collection with an emphasis on the period from the 15th-18th centuries.
Rudiae is an archaeological park located southwest of Lecce. The place was settled in the 700-800s BC. of Messapiens, who came from Illyria in the Balkans. Later, the area became Greek under Magna Graecia and expanded considerably.
Today you can visit the area and, among other things, see the remains of the site’s amphitheater and a necropolis. There are also preserved parts of two city walls, which in their heyday were fortified with towers and a moat.
Gallipoli is a beautiful and exciting city with a rich history. It was part of Greek Magna Graecia, and today it consists of the old town, located on an island, and the new town, whose main street is the elegant Corso Roma. Historically, Gallipoli has been the Mediterranean’s largest market for trade in olive oil, for which the region of Puglia is still known.
The entire old town is worth seeing for beautiful strolls in the old streets, and the city’s main sights include the castle Castello di Gallipoli, the cathedral Basilica Concattedrale di Sant’Agata Vergine and several other churches. One can also enjoy beautiful beaches in Gallipoli; the beautiful Spiaggia di Baia Verde is immediately south of the city.
Porto Cesareo is a small town that lies beautifully along the coast of the Gulf of Taranto to the southeast of Taranto. The city is not least known for being on some of Italy’s most beautiful and lovely beaches. The water is clear, and in many places it is almost like visiting tropical beaches with the beautiful colors you can experience.
Some of the best beaches are Spiaggia di Torre Lapillo and Spiaggia di Scalo di Furno immediately north of Porto Cesareo and Spiaggia di Punta Prosciutto a little further to the northwest.
Otranto is a beautifully situated city on the east coast of the Puglia region. In fact, you can hardly go further east in Italy, and a few kilometers south of the city is Capo d’Otranto, the country’s easternmost point. It is precisely here that the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea meet. Otranto is located where the Greek city of Hydros used to be.
In the city you can see the beautiful promenade along the sea, the castle Castello Aragonese from the end of the 15th century and the city’s cathedral with fantastic floor mosaics from the 12th century. If you have the opportunity, you can see some of Puglia’s best-known rock formations at Baia di Torre Sant’Andrea, which lies a good ten kilometers north of Otranto.
Throughout history, the city of Brindisi has been an important port for trade with Greece and the Middle East. Thus, it was also here that the famous Via Appia from Rome ended, and today you can see one of the two original Roman columns that marked the end of the road.
In the center of Brindisi, you can also see an 18th-century reconstruction of the city’s cathedral from the 11th-12th centuries, several other churches, the castle Castello Svevo and the sea fort Castello Alfonsino. If you have sailed to or from the city, you will also be able to recognize the Monument to Italian Sailors/Monumento al Marinaio d’Italia.
Ostuni is one of the Puglia region’s major excursion destinations. It is a city known as The White City/La Città Bianca because of its white walls and many white painted houses that can be seen from afar. And in addition to being famous as a whole for the white houses, there are also various sights that you can especially look at.
Ostuni’s cathedral was built by Friedrich II of Swabia in Romanesque style in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 15th century. With its rose window, it is one of these sights. You can also go to Piazza della Libertà, Ostuni’s central square. Here stands the impressive column, Colonna di Sant’Oronzo, and here is the city’s beautiful town hall.
Alberobello is a town where you can see the special trulli houses that have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996. Trulli houses date back to the 15th century and are characterized by thick walls built without the use of mortar and conical roofs.
In Alberobello, the trulli houses date back to the 17th century, when Count Giangirolamo II started the urbanization of the local forest, and thereby he gave permission for the construction of the special houses, which, due to their construction technique, meant that the count did not have to pay taxes to the Spanish Viceroy.
The houses could be completely or partially demolished, whereby they could appear as non-permanent residences, which gave freedom from tax payment. You can see the trulli houses in several places in Alberobello, where they are located, among other things, in the neighborhoods of Rione Monti and Rione Piccola.
Bari on the Adriatic Sea is the second largest city on the southern Italian mainland. It is an active port city with an international profile and many sights, beaches and lovely promenades along the Adriatic Sea, which the city has expanded as a result of the expansion of Bari from the old town.
Bari is very varied from district to district, and it is almost like visiting two different cities. The labyrinth of narrow streets in the old town is a great contrast to the wide boulevards of Joachim Murat’s 19th-century city, and on the border is the street Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, which is worth a stroll in itself.
Taranto is one of the largest cities in both the Apulia region and in Southern Italy. It is a city that lies along the coast of the Gulf of Taranto, and in fact the city calls itself the Capital of the Seas. The reason is that the Great Sea/Mar Grande lies west of the center and the Little Sea/Mar Piccolo lagoon lies to the east.
The old center is located on an island, and it was Greeks who built the historic Taranto in their time. You can still see remains from the Greek era; not least with the preserved columns from the old Poseidon temple. The temple ruins are located in today’s center on the border between the old town and the new and larger district, Borgo Nouvo.
Matera is a city in the region of Basilicata, and it is known for the neighborhood of Sassi di Matera, where you can see the city’s ancient cave dwellings carved into the porous limestone rocks. It is an exciting experience, and the cave dwellings are also included in UNESCO’s world heritage list.
The homes are still in use 9,000 years after they were first established. In some places, the dwellings are on top of other caves, which makes the Sassi di Matera a very interesting place to walk. You can also see the city’s cathedral, which literally sits on top of Matera.
Via Benzi
centromongolfieralecce.it
Via Vittorio Bachelet 23
spaziolecce.com
Via Trinchese, Piazza Mazzini
Museo Ferroviario della Puglia
Via G. Codacci Pisanelli 3
museoferroviariodellapuglia.it
Carrisiland Resort
Cellino San Marco
facebook.com/carrisiland
Museo Fantasy
Via Vittorio Emanuele II 33
museofantasy.jimdofree.com
In Porto Cesareo
Teatro Romano, Lecce, Italy
Overview of Lecce
Lecce is a city in the region of Puglia, and it is one of Southern Italy’s most visited and must-see cities. This is not least due to Lecce’s old town, which was largely built in exuberant Lecce Baroque. It was the local limestone that made possible the rich Baroque decorations that can be seen all over the city today.
Lecce is called the Florence of Southern Italy, and for good reason. A walk through the city’s streets and squares full of atmospheric architectural highlights. This applies not least to the churches with the cathedral, Santa Chiara, Santa Croce and San Matteo, but also Karl V’s large castle and other facilities.
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The Roman Theater of Lecce is beautifully located between other buildings in the center of Lecce. It is believed to have been built under Augustus in the 1st century BC, before Augustus became emperor. In its day, it could accommodate around 5,000 spectators, and it was hidden under the newer city for centuries.
In connection with some gardens at two mansions, the theater was discovered in 1929. The theater was built large, with an external diameter of 40 meters, and it is still quite well preserved. It was used for the performance of tragedies and comedies, while, for example, gladiator fights took place in the city’s amphitheater.
Porta Napoli is one of Lecce’s city gates to the old town. The gate was built as a triumphal arch in 1548 as a symbol of the Habsburg Empire and Emperor Charles V, who had expanded Lecce’s defenses. The name of the gate is due to the fact that this was the city’s entrance from the road leading to and from Naples.
The gate’s architecture was inspired by Roman triumphal arches, and Corinthian columns support the arch’s pediment. On this you can see Charles V’s imperial coat of arms. You can also see an inscription celebrating Charles V and the military’s victory over the Turks.
You can also notice the obelisk Obelisco di Re Ferdinando I in Piazza Angelo Rizzo immediately west of Porta Napoli. The obelisk was erected in 1822 in honor of Ferdinand I, who was king of the Two Sicilies. It was the sculptor Vito Carluccio who made the obelisk, on which, among other things, can see coats of arms for the districts of Brindisi, Gallipoli, Taranto and Lecce.
Lecce’s old castle is located on the eastern edge of the old town. The castle was built in the Middle Ages, but is today named after the German-Roman Emperor Karl V, who from 1539 expanded the castle considerably to the result that can be seen today.
Karl V had the former castle and some other buildings demolished to make way for a modern castle with contemporary military technology and architecture. The general engineer Gian Giacomo dell’Acaja of the Kingdom of Naples was in charge of the installation. The castle was built with thick walls and moats, which were filled up in 1872.
The castle was a military area until 1979, and in 1983 Castello di Lecce became the property of the city. Today, the large facility with its high walls and solid corner bastions is regularly used for various cultural events. You can therefore take a closer look at the old military architecture.
Porta San Biagio is a beautiful gate building that leads to and from Lecce’s old town. The gate is dedicated to Saint Blasius, who was bishop of Cappadocia in what was then Armenia. Blasius was born in Lecce and left the city in favor of Armenia along the very road where the Porta di San Biagio was built.
The current gate building was completed after a reconstruction in 1774. It is elegantly decorated with e.g. coat of arms of the city of Lecce and of King Ferdinand IV of Naples. At the top of the gate you can see a sculpture depicting Saint Blaise as a bishop.
Porta San Biagio is located at Piazza d’Italia, where you can see the war memorial Monumento dei Caduti. The memorial was erected from 1918 to 1950, and it stands in honor of those who fell during World War I and World War II.
This is a large baroque mansion designed by the architect Giuseppe Zimbalo. It was built 1659-1695 with a rich ornamentation, which can be seen in Zimbalo’s other works done in the same period and in the soft Lecce stones. Zimbalo also designed the neighboring building, the church Basilica di Santa Croce, and the mansion was designed as a kind of continuation of the church.
The palace was built as a monastery for Celestine monks, and for several centuries the buildings formed the framework for theological and philosophical studies. At the beginning of the 19th century, many religious monasteries were dissolved, and the Celestine monastery in Lecce was given to the city, which furnished the mansion as an administrative building. The place still has that role today, where it is the seat of Lecce’s prefecture and provincial administration.
This is one of the three preserved city gates that lead to the old city center of Lecce. It got its name from the historic town of Rudiae, which can be visited today as an archaeological site. Rudiae lay in the direction of the gate seen from present-day Lecce.
In this place, another gate stood until the end of the 17th century, when it collapsed. In 1703, Prospero Lubelli had the current gate built with beautiful decorations. Immediately above the four pillars you can see busts of the city’s founders; Malennio, Dauno, Euippa and Idomeneo. At the top is St. Orontius, who is the patron saint of the city, and he is flanked by St. Irene and St. Dominic.
MUSA Museo Storio-Archeologico is an interesting museum where you can experience parts of the history of the Salento region. The museum belongs to the University of Lecce, and one can see the exhibition as a journey through time from prehistory to the time of the Messapians to Greek and Roman Apulia.
The museum was established in 2007, and in the exhibitions you can see, for example, archaeological finds and various reproductions that show archaeological contexts.
Teatro Apollo is one of Lecce’s well-known theatres. The theater building was built by Maestro Vincenzo Cappello after designs in noble neoclassicism by the engineer Tassoni, who designed the theater with the column-supported entrance. The Sala Apollo stage was completed in 1912, and the theater was subsequently expanded with the Sala Arena.
The theater was in operation until the 1980s, when it closed in 1986. The stage was then closed for many years, and in 2003 the city of Lecce acquired the theater from Cappello’s heirs. The municipality initiated a major restoration project in 2008, and in 2017 the Teatro Apollo was reopened to the presence of, among others, the President of Italy.
Teatro Politeama Greco is the name of Lecce’s large and classical theater stage, which is home to operas, symphony concerts and theater productions. The theater was first called Politeama Principe di Napoli, but was named Greco after the family that built the theater.
It was Donato Greco who applied to the municipality for permission to build the theatre. His brother, the engineer Oronzo Greco, was in charge of the construction, which took place in 1882-1884, when it was inaugurated with the staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. The Teatro Politeama was expanded in the following decades; Among other things, with the foyer and Carmine Palmieri’s beautiful decoration of the theater’s ceiling.
In Lecce’s cathedral square there are various beautiful buildings. One of them is the former seminary that Giuseppe Cino designed at the initiative of Bishop Michele Pignatelli. The seminary was built from 1694 and inaugurated in 1709.
Today, the old seminary is set up as a museum of church art. You can through fine paintings, sculptures, silverware etc. experience fine art and at the same time get an impression of the church’s importance for life and art in Lecce.
Giardini Pubblici is Lecce’s central city park. Its history dates back to 1818, when the city government decided to build avenues and a park around the city’s historic center. From the 1830s, the park was laid out, and fruit trees, ornamental trees, roses etc. were planted.
The park was laid out like an Italian garden with a circular central plant surrounded by geometric flower beds. Since then, the park has been continuously modernized and planted and is today a wonderful breather in the city with many beautiful plants and facilities.
MUST Museo Storico Città di Lecce is an urban history museum located in an exciting setting in Lecce’s former convent of the Poor Clares. At the museum you can see various themed exhibitions about Lecce’s long and interesting history through changing eras. You can also experience various art at the museum.
The old monastery was built in the first half of the 15th century in the center of Lecce. The buildings functioned as a monastery until 1866, after which the monastery housed, among other things, public administration offices before it became the current museum.
This is one of Lecce’s newer churches, having been built in the years 1852-1858. Originally it was a smaller church outside Lecce’s city walls, but when Charles V’s walls were built in 1548, the church was newly built within the walls. In the 1567s it was expanded after a healing miracle.
The current church does not resemble the original 16th-century church, but is instead a rebuilt in neo-classicism, which was characteristic of contemporary times in the 19th century. It was the architect Giuseppe Maiola da Maddaloni who designed the church in its new and current form, where, among other things, can see a beautiful dome that is covered on the outside with polychrome majolica tiles.
Inside, the dome is decorated with floral motifs, and in the church room you can see stained glass windows and an interior that is stylistically greatly simplified compared to the city’s baroque churches.
Museo Sigismondo Castromediano is a museum named after Sigismondo Castromediano, who was, among other things, an archaeologist. Castromediano founded this museum in 1868 and it is the oldest public museum in the Puglia region.
Today, the province of Lecce owns the museum, and here you can experience exciting archaeological collections from Salento. There is also a painting collection with an emphasis on the period from the 15th-18th centuries.
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