Art often reveals the soul of a population, and Lecce baroque is representative of the town but also of the whole region Lecce is the capital of Salento.

Therefore to better understand this manifestation you have to know the Salentine culture which mingles with the magic magnetism of this sun-drenched land and stare, lost in a daydream, at the magnificence of its monuments.

Lecce, known in the past as "Caput Apuliae" is still today the capital of the baroque.

The plasticity of Lecce stone, which is extremely ductile and friable has permitted the creation of masterpieces of art absolutely unique. In fact, even though the buildings, the facade of the churches and the altars inside them are richly decorated, they are always of oustanding beauty. The recurrent presence of fruits, flowers, anthropomorphisms and mythological references in the delicate carvings that grow upon the architectural structures of the town recall the ancient myths and legends that are an integral part of Salentine folklore. Already in 1160 the Abbey of S.Nicola di Casole, where a great number of precious medieval manuscripts were preserved, housed the first college in Europe.

Present day Lecce is like a stage, a fan of stone which opens and your eyes rove over bas-reliefs, statues of saints, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic caryatids, griffins, winged horses, putti and large flower and fruit trophies. Baroque architecture in Lecce, ignored what makes baroque baroque, that is the relationship between interior and exterior since it did not follow the late Renaissance spatial adjustments. The imagination of the artists who chiselled the facades of the churches and the altars inside them wanted to glorify the abundance of the fruits of the land symbolized by the cornucopia and remind you of a prevailingly agricultural society. Baroque is therefore not only a hymn to God to thank Him for His benevolence and grace but it is also Lecce itself full of pride and coquetry.