'Barocco leccese'

There are hazards to visiting Italy and setting your heart on seeing particular treasures as I have discovered over the course of many, many, visits.

Years ago, my youngest son did History of Art at school, and I took him to Florence for a few days so that he could view the paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance that he was passionate about seeing.  One of the many places on his list was a visit to the church of Santa Maria where he longed to see the great frescoe cycle in the Brancacci Chapel done by the young Renaissance painter, Masaccio. Although Masaccio died when he was only 27 years old, and despite his brief career, he had a profound influence on all the other artists during that Quattrocento period. We made our way to the chapel only to discover that the particular cycle he wanted to see was under wraps for restoration - needless to say my son was hugely disappointed. I myself have visited the cathedral of Orvieto twice, three years apart, in order to see a particular frescoe by Luca Signorelli, and both times it has been under wraps. After visiting Italy so many times I now realise that it is best not to set too high an expectation of seeing particular treasures in order to avoid disappointment. It was, therefore, no surprise to discover that the baroque exterior of the Basilica in Lecce that I was looking foward to seeing was under wraps!

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The city of Lecce 'Florence of the South'

I was comfortable with the buildings in Lecce - they had a familiarity to them being made of a similar honey coloured limestone that surrounds me back home in the Cotswolds

Many of the balconies in Lecce are held up by a variety of wonderful cavorting beasts - horses, lions, and mythical creatures or as in this case sheep.

It is early afternoon and the Duomo along with the Bell Tower are now shut, fortunately we visited the inside during the morning. What we found extraordinary was that we were able to stand in the sunshine and admire this building and have it completely to ourselves. Carved by Giuseppe Zimbalo, architect and sculptor he was known as 'Lo Zingarello' (little gypsy). He earned the Baroque city of Lecce the title of 'Barocco leccese' which flourished under his guidance during the mid c17th

Bell Tower

From far below the Bell Tower I could just make out a ceramic tiled roof which I endeavoured to capture. When I put the photo into the computer I was very surprised to spot the bronze figure of St. Oronzo which was not visible from the ground. He is holding an orb and cross, the symbol of Christian authority from the Middle Ages. St. Oronzo was appointed to be the Bishop of Lecce by St. Paul in AD57 and some of you may remember that we encountered him previously in the little white hilltop town of Ostuni.  

Bizzarely, in one of these Seminary buildings, castrato singers were once supplied to the Vatican! A practice that fortunately ceased towards the end of the c18th.

 Here is St. Oronzo once again dominating the centre of Lecce - he keeps on popping up all over southern Italy. The column he stands on is from antiquity and once marked the end of the Appian Way - one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic which ran all the way from Rome to nearby Brindisi. The people of Brindisi presented this column to the city of Lecce.

In the Piazza of St. Oronzo is a first century Roman theatre which was discovered in the 1930s. Hidden beneath the main city streets, it was found to be virtually intact complete with orchestra and seats

Down narrow alleyways

and through arcaded passages

we arrive at Lo Zingarello's crowning glory - the basillica of Santa Croce

with its exuberant Baroque rose window

and elaborate exterior covered in many hidden messages and symbols. The caryatid above represents a turbaned warrior from Assia Minor, now Turkey. It is giving out a message regarding the feelings of the people of Lecce towards their invaders. This warrior is now destined to hold up their basilica forever!

the above 3 images courtesy Wiki

Inside the exuberance continues, but I didn't feel that it was too much - I liked it 

In Lecce, unlike northern Italian cities, when the clock strikes one until 4 o'clock you can enjoy the whole place virtually to yourselves.

This is the final post from the Apulia region of Southern Italy.

The 9,000 year old town of Matera

I have known about Matera for a long time, but when Andrew Graham-Dixon, Art Historian, and Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli went there for their TV programme 'Italy Unpacked' I decided that it was somewhere that I too would like to visit.  

The settlement goes back to palaeolithic times and occupies a picturesque location on rocks above a deep gorge. 

The town has featured in several biblical films - King David with Richard Gere, Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ, Catherine Hardwicke's The Nativity Story, Timur Bekmambetov's Ben Hur - the architecture and dramatic landscape in the gorge create the perfect backdrop.

Matera declined in influence under the Greeks, and was destroyed by the Franks in 867, but it was rebuilt in the early c11th under the rule of Byzantium. An interesting fact for us was that during the c6th followers of Saint Basil, the Bishop of Caesarea and Cappadocia arrived in Matera fleeing from iconoclastic persecutions. They bought with them Greek religious rites and a community life that revolved around living in underground caves in a very similar manner to their previous existence in Cappadocia, Asia Minor, now Turkey.

The town consists of an attractive upper district and the silent lower Sassi (cave) district where people once occupied dwellings scooped out of the soft rock. Some of 130 rock churches were eventually occupied during the c15th by local people. Even up until the 1960s families of 8 or 10 together with their animals were still living in cave homes without any sanitation.

In his memoire 'Christ stopped at Eboli', Carlo Levi drew attention to the living conditions of the people of Matera, comparing the Sassi (cave) district to Dante's Inferno.

Matera has been continuously inhabited for over 9,000 years exceeded only by Aleppo and Jericho.

Four hundred years ago everyone in Matera, rich and poor, peasants and aristocrats, all lived in caves. 

The rich had grand facades, fashionable porticos, and ornate doorways which led into cavernous rooms hollowed out from the rocks. 

By the 18th century, the middle classes were moving out to build a new “upper” town of elegant palaces and piazzas. 

The façade of one of Matera's churches, San Francesca, pays understated homage to 'Lecce Baroque'.

The city of Lecce - the Florence of the south, gives its name to what is called 'Barocco leccese'. It is unlike baroque seen anywhere else being exhuberant, fun, covered in putti, flowers, symbols and lots of hiddden messages - a visit to Lecce will be forthcoming

As the day draws to a close, and we drive onwards to our next destination, we take a final look back from the far side of the gorge to Matera's cathedral - a splendid c13th Apulian Romanesque style building dedicated to the Madonna della Bruna and St. Eustace.