Puglia Real Estate

LECCE

Lecce is the capital of Baroque art in Puglia. It is the most important town of the Salentine peninsula and it lays over a plain in the south-east of the heel of Italy. According to the tradition, Lecce was founded by Malennio, King of the Salentinians, a century before the war of Troia. Some archaeologic findings, like Messapic graves, date the origins of Lecce back to ancient times. In the VIII cent. b.C., this city was a colony of the ancient Laconia (Sparta), whose inhabitants founded the city of Taranto. In the III cent. b.C. it was conquered by the Romans. They fortified it to defend the town from the Macedonian invasion, and they called it Lupiae ( this name may explain why there is an image of a she-wolf as a symbol of the city). So, this place was not a “Municipium” anymore but, thanks to Marco Aurelio, it was turned into a colony. After the distancing of this site from its primitive centre (3 km) the city was called Licea (or Litium). In the II cent. b.C. the commercial activity of Lecce was booming, therefore the Emperor Adriano ordered to build a road that connected Brindisi to Lecce and then Lecce to the sea. In the same time, they built a peculiar theatre (near S.Chiara church) and an amphitheatre, of which there are stately remains in the beautiful S.Oronzo square, a gem of the old town. After the fall of the Roman Empire the city rapidly declined because of barbarian and Byzantines invasions. The egemony of Lecce fell further into decline since Otranto became the most important dock of the Salento area. Things improved when the Normans arrived and the city recovered its significance as a commercial centre and a county and it was regarded as a privileged dwelling for noblemen and kings. Some monastic orders also moved here at that time (the Benedectines) to fight against the cultural supremacy of Constantinople (in that period many convents and churches were built, like SS.Nicolò and Cataldo and S.Maria Cerrate). The Emperor Ottone IV destroyed it and then it was conquered by the Aragoneses. Thanks to Carlo V its urban structure was reorganized and it became the seat of Courts and suburban State offices. To defend the city from the continuous Turks’ invasions that spread all over the Salento coasts, Carlo V built a new wall and a powerful castle. This building stands in the middle of the town and it is divided into two trapezoidal structures that were erected in different periods; they have a yard in the centre. The external one was built by the military architect Gian Giacomo dell’Acaya between 1539 and 1549. The castle has four bastions that preserve the most ancient structure of the Middle Ages. It had probably been built by King Tancredi at the end of the XII cent., but there are no remains of it because of the many modifications that took place over the centuries. The Angevin “maschio”(keep) of the XIV century is the most ancient part of the building, and it is embellished by a chapel and a big hall on the upper floor. There are two entrances to the fortress: one from the North-West bastion that looks to the city and has an “L” plan and three defence doors; and the other one on the opposite side, looking to the countryside. At the moment the castle is the seat of the Military District of Lecce. The period of slendour of Lecce was between the XVI and the XVIII centuries, when the famous “Baroque of Lecce” developed. That is why this city is dubbed the “Baroque capital of the South”.