Piazza Duomo (Cathedral Square) (source: Visual Puglia )
The visitor crossing via Libertini where it meets via Palmieri may stop short at the unexpected spectacle that opens up before him: Piazza Duomo. A monumental gateway frames one of the major tourist attractions of Lecce. It is a splendid baroque atrium that sets the stage for an impressive monumental entrance and marked off by a rhythmic sequence of baroque buildings: the Duomo (Cathedral), the seminary and the Palazzo Vescovile (Bishop’s Palace). The great five-story tapered bell-tower by Giuseppe Zimballo towers over the piazza. The side view of the Duomo (dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption), also by Zimballo, is a rich triumphal arch completed in honour of Saint Orontius. The preciously-adorned gate is covered with finely-carved festoons and dancing putti, emblems of the confectionary style of Lecce baroque. The sober front façade of the Duomo faces the Episcopio (the Bishop’s Palace) (1632) with its spacious loggia, and the seminary (1701) with a balanced façade decorated with a slight rustication that is carried through the high pilasters.
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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