Lecce

Other buildings

• Column of statue of St Oronzo: (Lecce's patron) was given to Lecce by the city of Brindisi, because Saint Oronzo was reputed to have cured the plague in Brindisi. The column was one of a pair that marked the end of the Appian Way, the main road between Rome and southern Italy.
• Torre del Parco ("Park Tower"): is one of the medieval symbols of Lecce. It was erected in 1419 by the then-18 year old
  Giovanni Antonio Del Balzo Orsini
  , prince of Lecce. The tower, standing at more than 23 metres (75 ft), is surrounded by a ditch in which bears (the heraldic symbol of the Orsini del Balzo) were reared. The whole complex was the seat of Orsini's tribunal and of a mint, and after Giovanni Antonio's death, it became a residence for the Spanish viceroys.
• Palazzo Sedile: was built in 1592 and was used by the local council until 1852.
• Castle of Charles V: built in 1539–49 by Gian Giacomo dell'Acaja. It has a trapezoidal plan with angular bastions. It is attached to the Politeama Greco Opera House, inaugurated on 15 November 1884.
• Triumphal Arch (Arco di Trionfo, commonly called Porta Napoli, "Neapolitan Gate"), which is one of the three gates to enter Lecce's historical city centre, erected in 1548 in honor of Charles V. It replaced an older gate, Porta S. Giusto, which, according to tradition, lay over the tomb of the namesake saint. Also built over pre-existing medieval gates are the current Porta San Biagio ("St. Blaise Gate") and the Porta Rudiae which are the other two gates to Lecce's Historical city centre. Both are in Baroque style, the latter having the statue of St. Oronzo on the top and mythological figures on the sides.
• Palazzo dei Celestini: now seat of the Province of Lecce. It was built in 1659–95 and designed by Giuseppe Zimbalo.
• The city's obelisk: erected in 1822 in honour of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

• 
  Piazza Sant'Oronzo
• 
  Piazza del Duomo
• 
  Basilica di Santa Croce
• 
  Church of San Giovanni Battista
• 
  Palazzo dei Celestini
• 
  Roman Theatre (2nd century AD)
• 
  Torre del Parco
• 
  Arco di Prato
• 
  Triumphal Arch
• 
  Porta Rudiae

Gardens and parks

• Orto Botanico di Lecce, a botanical garden
  .

• The Roman 2nd century amphitheatre, situated near Sant'Oronzo Square, was able to seat more than 25,000 people. It is now half-buried because other monuments were built above it over the centuries. The theatre is currently used for different religious and arts events.
• The archaeological museum Sigismondo Castromediano.
• The archaeological museum Faggiano.
• The archaeological park of
  Renaissance Humanist who was from the region.^[14] This was once the more important city until Roman times and has an amphitheatre of its own, a necropolis
  and remains of substantial walls. The Porta Rudiae, built on the road leading from this site, is named after it.

Lecce experiences a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa).

Sport

Lecce is home to

Transportation

Lecce is served by Lecce railway station. The local public transport includes trolleybus service, introduced in 2012.^[18][19]

People

• Antonio Amantea (1894–1983), World War I fighter ace
• Scipione Ammirato (1531–1601), historian and philosopher
• Giuseppe Ayroldi (1895 – 1962), represented Lecce in the Constituent Assembly
• translator
• Carmelo Bene (1937–2002), actor, film director and screenwriter
• Vittorio Bodini (1914–1970), poet and translator
• Enciclopedia Treccani
  ), who served in the government of Italy as Minister of Culture
• Carlo Capasa (born 1958), president of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana
• CoSTUME NATIONAL
• Franco Causio (born 1949), retired footballer, 1982 FIFA World Cup winner
• Antonio Conte (born 1969), retired footballer, former manager of Juventus FC, Chelsea F.C, Tottenham Hotspur F.C., and Italian football team
• Francesco Danieli (born 1981), historian and iconologist
• Cosimo De Giorgi (1842–1922), scientist
• Ennio De Giorgi (1928–1996), mathematician
• Cloe Elmo (1910–1962), opera singer
• Quintus Ennius
  (c. 239–169 BC), Roman writer and poet
• Vito Fazzi (1851–1918), physician and hospital founder
• Barbara Lezzi (born 1972), politician, who served in the government of Italy as Minister for the South
• Marco Materazzi (born 1973), retired footballer, 2006 FIFA World Cup winner
• Gabriele Poso (born 1978), independent artist, musician and composer
• Michelangelo Schipa (1854–1939), writer, historian and scholar
• Tito Schipa (1888–1965), tenor
• Filippo Smaldone (1848–1923), Catholic priest and saint
• Antonio Verrio (c. 1636–1707), painter in England

Twin towns – sister cities

Lecce is twinned with:^[20]

• Murcia, Spain, since 2004
• Skopje, North Macedonia, since 2005
• Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland, since 2006
• Valladolid, Spain, since 2009
• Amasya, Turkey

See also

• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lecce
• Punta San Cataldo di Lecce Lighthouse
• Brindisi Airport
• Port of Brindisi

Notes

References

1. ^ L'Italia dialettale (1976). L'Italia dialettale, Volume 39. Arti Grafiche Pacini Mariotti. p. 250. Dialetto romanzi, in centric he circondano, senza allontanarsene troppo, l'area ellenofona, cioè Melpignano (dove il dialetto griko non è ancor del tutto morto), Vernole, Lecce, S. Cesario di Lecce, Squinzano, San Pietro vernotico, Cellino S. Marco, Manduria, Francavilla Fontana, Maruggio: può essere perciò legittimo pensare ad un'origine grika del verbo in questione, con estensione successiva al dialetti romani. Il neogreco presenta una serie di voci che si prestano semanticamente e foneticamente
2. Iapyges
   are lost to history.
3. ^ "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
4. ^ "Popolazione Residente al 1° Gennaio 2018". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
5. ^ "Lecce". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
6. ^ Rohlfs, Gerhard (1964). "Toponomastica greca nel Salento" (PDF) (in Italian). p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2017. Ancient Greek name of Lecce according to Strabo.
7. ^ "Lecce: Italy". Lifeinitaly.com. 10 November 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
8. ^ "Investigation on porosity change of Lecce stone". Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
9. ^ "Università del Salento". Ministero dell'Istruzione dell'Università e della Ricerca (in Italian).
10. ^ Stillwell, Richard; et al. "LUPIAE (Lecce) Apulia, Italy". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.
11. ^ Rita Parisi (14 February 2022). "Sant'Oronzo, la storia del patrono di Lecce" (in Italian).
12. ^ "Le incursioni aeree alleate in Puglia nell'estate 1943". Il Corriere Salentino (in Italian). 25 March 2018.
13. ^ Luigi Bove (15 February 2019). "La chiesa di Sant'Irene dei Teatini a Lecce" (in Italian).
14. ^ Pietro Napoli Signorelli, Vicende della coltura nelle due Sicilie, Naples 1784, Vol.1, p.246ff
15. National Oceanic and Atmosoheric Administration. Retrieved 27 February 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link
    )
16. ^ "World Weather Information Service". World Weather Information Service.
17. ^ "Lecce Galatina".
18. ^ Lehmann, Jürgen (16 January 2012). "Lecce (IT) - Finally opened!". TrolleyMotion. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
19. ISSN 0266-7452
    .
20. ^ Lecce: "Gemellaggi" Archived 19 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, 3 November 2011, retrieved 16 August 2014

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Lecce.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lecce.

• Official website (in Italian)