ITALIAN JOURNEY- PROGRAMME 1

LECCE- LECCE’S STONE

Nicknamed the ‘Florence of the South’, Lecce is considered by many Italians to be the country’s most beautiful Southern city. Most edifices at the heart of the city are built out of the local limestone, a soft material which lends itself beautifully to the art of sculpture. In Baroque times sculptors had a lot of fun playing around with the medium in Lecce.

Sergio Cortese and Milena Loiacono, both experts on the city’s architecture, are very proud to share their knowledge of the city and its cultural heritage with James.

Milena Loiacono: This stone is native to the area. It’s a special kind of limestone that can be found and extracted locally, from nearby quarries.

James: And you can’t find it anywhere else?

Milena Loiacono: No, and that’s precisely why its name is site specific. It’s called Pietra Leccese because it’s native to this area.

James: OK. And this style here, is that also from the area?

Sergio Cortese: Actually that’s a Baroque style, although it’s not typically Baroque: it’s different from the Baroque styles in Naples or Rome, for example.

James: And are there many examples of it here in Lecce?

Sergio Cortese: Yes, a great many. We can go and have a look if you like.

James: Yes please. OK, let’s go! Is this…Santa Croce? Am I right?

Milena Loiacono: Yes, this is Santa Croce.

James: I’m a bit overwhelmed! Isn’t it a bit over the top?

Milena Loiacono: Well, that’s exactly the effect Baroque Art was trying to achieve: artists wanted to dazzle the viewer through a triumphal use of stone. It uses an array of sculptural effects which are beautifully rendered here. It’s a decorative and eclectic style of architecture, in which carved details are made up of natural and organic elements: as you can see there are lots of representations of fruits and flowers. It’s almost as though people were trying pay homage to the divine through a depiction of everyday natural elements, of the organic elements which are the fruits of their labour.

James:  Of their labour here in the Salentine countryside?

Milena Loiacono: Yes.

Sergio Cortese: Of course the symbolism of these buildings can also be read on a more complex level. The buildings also represent the triumph of Christianity over paganism. It took many years to build this marvellous church: 150, in fact. Here you can see layer upon layer of work, produced by generation after generation of architects.  In fact the architect who completed the second order of this church was later asked by Bishop Pappacoda to build the city’s Cathedral, one of Lecce’s most important monuments.

James: Lecce’s Cathedral? OK. Will you show me?

Sergio Cortese: With pleasure!

Milena Loiacono: It’s not far from here.

James: Let’s go! Wow, it’s beautiful! Is this the Duomo square?

Sergio Cortese: Yes!

James: So we’re at the heart of the city?

Sergio Cortese: Yes, absolutely! It’s a wonderful square around which all sorts of amazing buildings have been erected: here you have the bell tower, the cathedral, the Bishop’s Palace, the Seminary.

James: It’s all here. Is that the façade you were referring to earlier? 

Sergio Cortese: Yes. That’s the Cathedral. Giuseppe Zimbalo’s Cathedral.

James:  It’s beautiful! Thank you so much!

Sergio Cortese: Well thank you for coming with us in spite of the heat!

James: Yes, it’s boiling!

Sergio Cortese: Why don’t we go and have a drink?

James: Excellent idea!

Milena Loiacono: Yes, good idea.

James: Let’s go!