Basilica of the Holy Cross (source: Visual Puglia )
The Basilica has a cross-vaulted roof with a hemispherical cupola. The inside is divided into three naves by columns with richly sculpted capitals. The central nave has an intricately carved timber lacunar nave, while those to the sides have cross-shaped vaulted ceilings. The building is entered via three portals with archivolts with lintels, the central of which is sumptuously decorated.
The internal façade is punctuated by a series of columns, arches and a balustraded balcony supported by engraved corbels. The sculpted decorations are characterized by a spirit of gaiety and eccentricity. The façade is completed by the great rose window, finished in 1646, decorated with floral friezes, bunches of fruit and cherubs.
The sculpted internal fittings are made from local Lecce stone which is soft and smooth and can be worked with the blade of a knife and a lathe. Once in position and exposed to the air, this stone hardens like marble. Because of this quality, the decorations are known by the people of Lecce as opera decurtieddu (meaning made with a knife in local dialect).
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Sun, sea, wind. Nature strikes in the first place, when one gets to this land stretch in balance between two seas. Salento has its core in the province of Lecce, - a Baroque Florence in Southern Italy – and reaches the provinces of Brindisi over the Adriatic Sea, and Taranto on the Ionian Sea side. The cities and inland towns expressions of the unique Lecce Baroque with Messapi and Salento Grecìa can still be seen. Its language, songs and feasts still show the culture of Graecia Magna. Surf, kite-surf and windsurf lovers never miss the beaches facing the Alimini lakes, while scuba diving fans just have to choose among the several equipped centers and charming sea beds of the Ionian coast as well as of the area between Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca.
Church and hermitage of Santa Maria of the Angels - Scorrano
Lighthouse and aqueduct - Santa Maria di Leuca
Salento coast is characterized by a high variety in landscapes: the clear, fine sand beaches of Santa Cesarea seafront; famous caves such as Castro cave with its Grotta Romanelli, one of the most important Italian prehistoric settlements, and Grotta Zinzulusa, 'the pearl of caves', owing its name to the dialect word 'zinzuli', ('rags'), used by fishermen to indicate its beautiful stalactites and stalagmites
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Baroque style affirmed in Apulia during Counter-Reformation upon the will of Roman Church. A way of exalting Catholic symbols, Lecce and Nardò Baroque has its own characteristics that make it different from the same artistic style in other regions. Its peculiarities derive from the use of amber-colored Lecce stone as well as decorations used to mask the structures on which they are mounted
In Southern Apulia, at the heart of Salento, nine municipalities united to save what is still left of the ancient Grika culture. In this area of Salento there can still be found traces of Graecia Magna Grika language spoken in the Basilian convents dismantled after the council of Trent
Project created in collaboration with InnovaPuglia.
Regione Puglia
Regione Puglia