Extravagant architectural adornment is a hallmark of Baroque architecture, the exuberant style popular during the Counter-Reformation of the late 1600s. |
Lecce is deservedly celebrated for its swirling Baroque architecture and its sophisticated lifestyle. Streets are lined with heavily ornamented facades, sidewalk cafes and restaurants, and filled with local college students, enthusiastic tourists and a very Italian gioia di vivere.
We stayed at a small inn on Via Lombardia just beyond the walls that enclose the historic center. Although the historic center is what we came to see, we decided to have dinner one night outside the walls, and eventually settled on a bar-restaurant catering to students and locals called La Drogheria (click HERE), one of several eateries along Via Tranto, a street that starts opposite the historic district's Piazza Angelo Rizzo. During our before-dinner drinks at a sidewalk table, we watched a group of men, from their 20s to several decades older, kicking around a soccer ball until it went over a high stone wall into someone's garden. All but two of the men wandered away, and we watched as one man struggled to hoist himself over the wall, threw the ball out and otherwise was invisible for quite a while. Eventually, his hands appeared at the top of the wall and with great effort he made it out. Thoroughly entertained but feeling the night chill, we went indoors and ordered hamburgers. Jane got one of our few souvenirs here, a wooded coaster with the motto in English: "Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen." Easy to believe when you're exploring southern Italy.
We had three nights and two full days in Lecce, and we used the two days to explore two other towns, Otranto on the southeast side of the heel and Gallipoli (not to be confused with the World War I battle site in Turkey) on the southwest side of the heel, on the Gulf of Taranto. Otranto is the easternmost point of Italy -- on a clear day they say you can see Albania -- and was a frequent point for foreign invasions. Famously, 800 people here were beheaded by Turks in 1480 when they refused to convert to Islam. Major attractions are the Aragonese Castle, setting for Horace Walpole's Gothic novel "The Castle of Otranto," and the cathedral Santa Maria Annunziata, which dates to 1088, and features an incredible mosaic floor and the skulls and other bones of the 800 martyrs.
Gallipoli is a fishing port; it also boasts a castle and an impressive cathedral where we and other tourists stood in the back during a wedding ceremony. We later saw the couple posing for photos at different places in town. There are sandy beaches near Gallipoli, but we were there on a rainy day. We drove to a lido, hoping for a break in the weather, but rain forced us back to the car before we could walk to the beach.
Stairs lead up from the entranceway of a palace in Lecce. |
Columns all over Lecce bear hallmarks of the Baroque. |
A palace in Lecce. |
The Duomo or cathedral in Lecce is relatively restrained on the outside. |
Inside, incredibly ornate columns and gilt surround a painting of a Biblical scene. |
Another Biblical painting and elaborate stonework in the Lecce cathedral. |
The bones of 800 Catholic martyrs are behind glass behind the main altar at Cattedrale Santa Maria Annunziata in Otranto. They were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam. |
Ancient frescos adorn the walls of the cathedral's crypt. |
Looking almost like a sample display of exotic marbles, this side altar at Santa Maria Annunziata was the height of extravagance back when the use of rare stone was a sign of wealth. |
The harbor at Otranto as seen from the Castello Aragonese. |
An old entrance into the castle area. |
Stairs to nowhere at Castello Aragonese. |
Tourists visit Otranto, but at least in late June there weren't very many of them. |
These terra cotta figurines were on sale in Lecce (where one shop claimed to have originated them) and in Otranto. We didn't see them elsewhere. Twelve euros would convert to about 14 U.S. dollars. |
Awnings shade sidewalk tables and storefronts along one of Otranto's narrow streets. |
This appears to be a depiction of the last judgment, one of many paintings at Sant'Agata by southern Italian artists of centuries past. |
Incredibly carved columns frame one of the Duomo's paintings. |
Golden candlesticks at Sant'Agata. |
Polychrome marbles are used in side chapels at Sant'Agata. |
A fishing party arrives back at the Gallipoli harbor. |
A corner of Gallipoli's working harbor. |
A three-wheeled taxi awaits customers outside the castle in Gallipoli, which, like the castle in Otranto, is known as Castello Aragonese. |
Stairs at the Gallipoli castle invite exploration but are closed to visitors. The castle that we see today was started in the 1600s and was built on the ruins of a Byzantine fortress. |
Much of Gallipoli's castle is used as art space. Centuries-old walls co-exist with modern conceptual art. The face, above, is actually the back of a chair. |
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