LECCE

Far down the Salento Coast in Puglia lies the Baroque Wonderland of Lecce.

Lecce was transformed during the 1500’s while under Spanish rule. Coincidentally at this time there was a splinter of the church that was asking for reformation, basically Lutherism, which wanted to strip down the ornate-ness of cathedrals and rid the church of all its trappings. The Protestant reformation was quite successful resulting in a mass exodus of the Roman Catholic church so in response to that the church launched “Counter Reformation” with the goal of being extra-ornate and to give the feeling that the church was not of this world, something extraordinary, to inspire awe and devotion and be therefore… sexy. The thought was to dazzle the public in a way that the drab Reformation could not. The result was Baroque! ⁣

Under Spanish rule Lecce got an entire dramatic, grand, and emotional face-lift. ⁣

The secret to this transformation was the local stone 𝘗𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘢 𝘓𝘦𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘦, or Lecce Stone. This area is rich in this particularly soft limestone that is soft and easy to carve, masons described Lecce stone as being “soft as butter”. It is a combination of this easy to carve material and the new Baroque fashion that created the Lecce you can see today. ⁣

Every guidebook is quick to point out the catchphrase that Lecce is the “Florence of the South” . It’s said so often that it becomes kind of annoying. But the results are hard to argue with, every building is intricately carved and gives off this warm, light buttermilky yellow hue. ⁣

It makes me wonder if you were born here and spent your whole life here what would it feel like to leave and see ordinary plain buildings, would it be a shock to the eyes?⁣