Basilica di Santa Croce

Interesting facts

Next to the great rose window, at roughly the nine o'clock position, a small carved self-portrait of Zimbalo peers out from the facade.

The date 1646 is carved in the stone beside the rose window, the work of the architect Cesare Penna.

In the 19th century critics mocked the facade as ridiculous and tasteless; only in the 20th century did scholars begin decoding its symbolism.

The church keeps a relic venerated as a fragment of the True Cross, which explains its dedication to the Holy Cross.

Along the balcony, thirteen putti clutch a crown and a papal tiara, emblems of temporal and spiritual power.

The menagerie beneath the balustrade also includes the Capitoline wolf and a figure of Hercules, linked to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The present high altar is not original: it was brought in 1956 from the church of Santi Niccolò e Cataldo for a national Eucharistic Congress.

The Celestine monks ran the church until their order was suppressed in 1807; their neighbouring convent now houses the prefecture and provincial offices.

The nave's coffered ceiling is made of walnut picked out with gilding, while the side aisles are covered by cross vaults.

Francesco Antonio Zimbalo carved the altar of Saint Francis of Paola in 1614-1615, and many scholars rank it the summit of Baroque sculpture in Terra d'Otranto.

Why it is worth it

The facade of Santa Croce is the showpiece of Lecce's Baroque: a wall of soft local limestone carved so densely with figures, foliage and beasts that it reads almost like embroidery. Above the portals runs a balcony held up by a row of atlantes and grotesque creatures, and the upper storey is centred on a large rose window. Among the carvings are figures read as Turkish prisoners from the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, along with animals standing for members of the Christian alliance - a dragon for the family of Pope Gregory XIII, a griffin for Genoa.

The site goes back to a Celestine monastery founded in the 14th century by Walter VI of Brienne, Count of Lecce. The present church was begun in 1549, partly on the properties of Jews who had been expelled from the city in 1510, and building stretched over generations: the lower facade was finished by 1582, the dome in 1590, and from 1606 the portals were added under Francesco Antonio Zimbalo. The upper facade and its decoration were completed later in the 17th century by Cesare Penna and Giuseppe Zimbalo, and the church was finished in 1695. The coats of arms on the main portal include those of Philip III of Spain, Mary of Enghien and Walter VI of Brienne.

Inside, the Latin-cross church has a nave and four aisles, two of which were converted into chapels in the 18th century, a coffered wooden ceiling and seventeen altars; the most elaborate, dedicated to Saint Francis of Paola, is the work of Francesco Antonio Zimbalo. Lecce itself, in the heel of Apulia, is known for this ornate local style, made possible by the fine, easily worked stone quarried around the city.

Getting there

The basilica is in the historic centre of Lecce, about 0.1 km from the city's core. The nearest airport is Brindisi Airport (BDS), about 39 km away. Lecce has a railway station on the line from Bari and Brindisi.

Basilica di Santa Croce

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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