Published in The New Country November 28, 2010
In this last Sunday of month end our tour continues to the "discovery" of small and great wonders of the historic center of Lecce. When you reach Porta Rusca or Rudiae, known by the name of the road leading to the ancient city of messapica Rudiae, the above was probably built by the architect Giuseppe Cino around 1703. On the top of the monumental crossing in the south-west of the old town, stands the statue of Sant 'Oronzo flanked laterally by rocky figures of St. Irene and Dominic both previous patrons of the city. After crossing the huge triumphal arch is projected beneath our feet and to get lost between the decorated branches in the urban center of the decumanus maximus "or Via Libertini. Leaving the back door and along the way that we have the impression that the civil and religious buildings stacked projecting the long axis road, is spalleggino quietly trying to make a good show though. On the one hand, the insolent and fanciful facade of the Church of St. John the Baptist, commonly called the "Rosary", seems to overwhelm the simple statement of the old co nvento Dominican S. John D'Aymo (Academy of Fine Arts), while the other side is contrasted with crabby do, the powerful and robust construction dimpled former Hospital of the Holy Spirit; situated a little further down the road, gracefully from its 68 meters, stands the "restored" and soaring bell tower of the cathedral which, heedless of the bulky aesthetic and polemical quarrels between buildings situated below its altitude, the discretely observed scene. Probably the original site, on which now stands the sixteenth-century factory Hospital, was used as a place for the care of poor sick towards the end of the fourteenth century, when Giovanni d' Aymo rich Florentine merchant living in Lecce, commissioned the construction of a church, a convent and a hospital entrusted entirely to the Dominican fathers, the hospital was officially founded with the issuance of a papal bull of 1392 laid by the then Pope Boniface IX. A hundred years later, however, it was decided to expand on the original design drawings created by master architect Gian Giacomo of, according to sources the new hospital would be built or rebuilt in 1548. The entire building has a strict marked by pairs of fluted pilasters and a marked embossed bandage (works in masonry construction bosses, stones that look different in shape and evenly protruding from the surface of the wall for decoration). The complex is spread over two floors lower that in addition to heavy string course, is complemented by a solemn round portal ashlar above which is placed one of five nineteenth-century clocks present in different parts of the city at the time all electronically synchronized. The upper floor is enriched by a series of elegant and ornate windows sober frames around them. The hard years from 1806 to 1815 focusing French imposed the suppression of religious orders and the monastery came under the "law" of the State Property Regio in 1898 the hospital had a new place or what is now know as the "old" Vito Fazzi Hospital then the complex became the headquarters of the Departmental Direction of Tobacco, also one of the two "infirmaries" has a movie theater. Yet another conversion is provided for quell'ex charitable work and concerns the future home of the Superintendence for Architectural Heritage and Landscape for the provinces of Lecce, Brindisi and Taranto. little further on near the church of Santa Teresa mention an appointment with the abundant and tasty appetizer tastings offered by the Milanese restaurant Blanco.
Giuseppe Arnesano
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