In the heel of the Italian boot lies a Roman city that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, covered itself in churches, palaces and façades carved from a local stone so soft it can be worked almost like wood. The result is a Baroque all its own, golden and exuberant, which earned it the nickname the Florence of the Baroque. Thirteen stops between the castle of Charles V, the monster-crowded façade of Santa Croce, the Celestine convent, the lanes of the old quarter, the emperor's triumphal gate, the enclosed cathedral square and its bell tower, the Roman theatre hidden among gardens, the house where a broken pipe uncovered two thousand years of history, the church that ripples like Borromini, the papier-mâché ceiling of Santa Chiara, the amphitheatre beneath the main square and the column of the saint who stopped the plague. Approximate audio duration: 22 minutes.
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Lecce: la ciudad que tallaron en una piedra blanda como la madera
En el talón de la bota italiana hay una ciudad romana que en los siglos XVI y XVII se cubrió de iglesias, palacios y fachadas talladas en una piedra local tan blanda que se trabaja casi como madera. El resultado es un Barroco propio, dorado y desbordante, que le valió el apodo de la Florencia del Barroco. Trece paradas entre el castillo de Carlos V, la fachada poblada de monstruos de Santa Croce, el convento de los celestinos, las callejuelas del barrio viejo, la puerta triunfal del emperador, la plaza cerrada del Duomo y su campanario, el teatro romano escondido entre jardines, la casa donde una cañería rota destapó dos mil años de historia, la iglesia que ondula como Borromini, el techo de papel maché de Santa Chiara, el anfiteatro bajo la plaza mayor y la columna del santo que frenó la peste. Duración aproximada de audio: 22 minutos.
Tour stops
13 stops · ~22 min of audio · 3.11 km on foot (~45 min walking) · about 1 h 15 min in total
You are standing before a huge, massive wall without a single ornament. This is the castle of Charles V. Before seeing the Lecce that looks like lace, it is worth starting with the Lecce that was afraid.
Look at the bastions at the corners, shaped like spearheads. They were designed for artillery, the latest thing in sixteenth-century military engineering. The castle was rebuilt this way from 1539, on the emperor's orders, to a design by the local architect Gian Giacomo dell'Acaya.
The fear had a name. In 1480 the Ottoman Turks landed at Otranto, some forty kilometres from here, took the tow…
2
Santa Croce, the Façade That Never Stops Talking
Stop here and let your eyes wander. You are in front of the Basilica of Santa Croce, the most famous work of Lecce's Baroque. It is hard to know where to begin.
The Celestine monks began building it in 1549 and only finished in 1695. Almost a century and a half of work. The lower part is attributed to Gabriele Riccardi. The upper part, with the great rose window, to Cesare Penna and Giuseppe Zimbalo, the architect who left the deepest mark on the city.
Now touch the wall if you can. This is pietra leccese, a limestone quarried a few kilometres away. Freshly cut, it is so soft it can be sawn …
3
The Convent That Became a Seat of Government
Step a few paces aside and look at the long building attached to the basilica. It is the former convent of the Celestines, the same monks who built Santa Croce.
Compare it with the church. The façade is long and orderly, with windows repeated in a row. But look at the frames: each window has its own carved decoration, different from the one beside it.
The design is attributed to Giuseppe Zimbalo, and it was finished at the end of the seventeenth century by his pupil Giuseppe Cino. Zimbalo and Cino are two names you will hear several times on this walk. Between them they signed a good share o…
4
The Streets of Balconies
You are in the heart of the old quarter. The streets narrow, turn without warning and suddenly open into little squares. The layout is medieval, even if almost everything covering it is Baroque.
Look up. See the balconies of the noble houses, resting on carved brackets: faces, leaves, animals, scrolls. In Lecce a balcony was a way of showing rank, and every family wanted theirs more elaborate than the neighbour's.
Notice the large doorways too. Many lead into an inner courtyard, around which the house was arranged. From the street you see little; life happened inside.
The sixteenth and seve…
5
The Triumphal Arch for Charles V
You are in front of Porta Napoli, the gate through which the road left for Naples, capital of the kingdom. It does not look like a defensive gate. It looks like a Roman triumphal arch, and that was the point.
It was raised in 1548 in honour of Charles V, the same emperor as the castle. Look up at the pediment: the great imperial coat of arms with the double-headed eagle.
Notice the columns on either side of the arch and the carved trophies of arms. This is ancient Roman language put to work for a sixteenth-century emperor who presented himself as heir to the Caesars.
Lecce had grounds for t…
6
The Square That Hides
You have just passed through the only entrance to the Piazza del Duomo. Pause for a moment. The square is closed on every side, like a great courtyard. From the street you would never guess; inside, suddenly, the whole power of Lecce's Church surrounds you.
In front of you, or to one side depending on where you stand, is the cathedral. Giuseppe Zimbalo rebuilt it between 1659 and 1670, commissioned by Bishop Luigi Pappacoda. Over an older church he raised a new one to the measure of Baroque Lecce.
Notice something odd: the cathedral has two façades. The main one, plainer, faces one way. The …
7
The Bell Tower That Looks to the Sea
Look up to the top of the tower. This is the cathedral's bell tower, the highest point in the old town. It stands some seventy metres tall, in five stages that narrow as they rise.
It too is the work of Giuseppe Zimbalo, who built it between 1661 and 1682. See how it changes: at the bottom it is heavy and solid; higher up it lightens and grows more ornate, ending in a small dome with a statue of Sant'Oronzo.
It is often said that from the top, on clear days, you can see the Adriatic. The sea is about ten kilometres away. For a city that had lived in fear of landings, watching the sea from on…
8
The Theatre Hidden in the Gardens
Look down, between the buildings. Those semicircular tiers are the Roman theatre of Lupiae. They are wedged between palaces, as if the city had grown on top without noticing.
In a way, that is what happened. For centuries the theatre lay buried under houses and private gardens. It came to light by chance in 1929, during work in the gardens of two palaces in the district.
Notice its size. It is a small theatre compared with those of Rome, built for the population of a provincial town. It dates from the age of Augustus, some two thousand years ago.
What survives is mainly the lower rows of se…
9
The House Where a Broken Pipe Uncovered History
You are in front of a house like many others on this street. From outside, nothing special. Inside is the Museo Faggiano, one of the most curious places in Lecce.
In the early two-thousands, Luciano Faggiano bought this building intending to open a restaurant. There was a problem with the toilet plumbing, and to find the leak he started digging.
He did not find the pipe he was looking for. He found something else: beneath the floor there were more floors, and beneath those, more still. Faggiano and his sons kept digging for years, with permits and under the supervision of the archaeological …
10
San Matteo, the Façade That Ripples
Stand in front of this church and look at it from bottom to top. This is San Matteo. At first sight it seems more restrained than Santa Croce, but it has a trick.
Look at the lower part: it curves outward, towards you, as if the wall were swelling. Now look at the upper part: it curves inward, as if drawing back. Convex below, concave above.
That play comes from Rome. It is the idea Francesco Borromini used at San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane: making a stone façade seem to move, to breathe. Here it was brought by Achille Larducci, who designed the church in the second half of the seventeenth c…
11
The Paper Ceiling of Santa Chiara
You are in front of the church of Santa Chiara, on one of the liveliest squares in the centre. It was rebuilt at the end of the seventeenth century by Giuseppe Cino, Zimbalo's pupil once again.
If it is open, go in and look at the ceiling. It seems to be carved wood, with beams and coffers. It is not. It is made of cartapesta, papier-mâché: paper, glue and plaster, modelled and painted.
Cartapesta is Lecce's great craft. Since the seventeenth century, the city's artisans have used it to make statues of saints, nativity scenes and church decorations. It was cheaper than wood or marble, lighte…
12
The Amphitheatre Beneath the Square
You are in Piazza Sant'Oronzo, the centre of Lecce's life. Go to the railing and look down. Those sunken arcades and tiers are the Roman amphitheatre of Lupiae.
It was built in the second century AD, and probably held more than fifteen thousand spectators. Gladiator fights and animal shows were staged here, as in so many amphitheatres across the empire.
Then the city gradually covered it up. Houses, streets and churches rose on top. It came to light in the early twentieth century, during construction of a bank building, and the major excavations followed in the nineteen-thirties.
Notice wha…
13
The Column of the Saint and the Plague
You are at the foot of the column that dominates the square. At the top, standing with his hand raised in blessing, is Sant'Oronzo, the patron saint of Lecce.
The column has a remarkable origin. In Brindisi, the port where the Via Appia ended, there were two great Roman columns. One of them collapsed in 1528. Its pieces ended up here in the seventeenth century, and were reassembled to hold up the saint.
The reason was the plague. In 1656 an epidemic swept the Kingdom of Naples and killed a huge share of the capital's population. Lecce was largely spared, and the city credited the miracle to …
How long does the "Lecce: the City Carved from Stone as Soft as Wood" audio tour take?
It has about 22 minutes of audio across 13 stops and a 3.11 km walking route (~45 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Emperor's Castle" (coordinates 40.3525, 18.1762). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Lecce and pick "Lecce: the City Carved from Stone as Soft as Wood". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
