By Isla Quinn
Pale, almost blonde. That is how Italy’s national tourism site describes the colour of Lecce’s seventeenth-century buildings, and the stone is the reason.
The stone
Wikipedia calls the local limestone, pietra leccese, soft and easy to work, which makes it suitable for sculpture, and says it is one of the city’s main exports. Britannica agrees that it is easy to work and calls it light yellow. Italy’s tourism site calls it “the white stones of Lecce”. Three sources, three colour words. We do not choose between them. Light and weather probably account for some of the difference, but that is our reading, and none of the three says so.
Where Lecce sits
Britannica places the city in Puglia, in south-eastern Italy, on the Salentine peninsula, east of Taranto. Wikipedia calls it the capital of its province and says the city is nicknamed “the Florence of the South” for its Baroque architecture, with Baroque monuments added from 1630. Britannica says the city may stand on the site of the Roman town of Lupiae, that it became a diocese in the 6th century, passed to the Aragonese kings of Naples in 1463, and flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Santa Croce
The Basilica di Santa Croce took a long time. Wikipedia says construction began in 1353, halted until 1549, and was completed in 1695. Italy’s tourism site says the foundation stone was laid in 1353 by Gualtieri VI of Brienne, Count of Lecce, and that the 16th-century expansion lasted almost two hundred years. Wikipedia adds that the façade features animals, grotesque figures and vegetables, along with a large rose window. The tourism site counts 16 altars inside.
Older layers
Britannica lists an underground burial chamber from the 4th century BC and a Roman amphitheatre. Wikipedia places the amphitheatre in the second century, near Piazza Sant’Oronzo, able to seat more than 25,000 people, and now half-buried.
Papier-mâché
Britannica lists papier-mâché religious objects and toys among the city’s industries. An article on an Italian-American culture site says the craft took shape in the 17th and 18th centuries and was cheaper and quicker than wood or marble. It says early work took place in the back rooms of barbers’ shops, that one barber known as Mesciu Pietru de li Cristi made crucifixes, and that in the late 19th century Luigi Guacci founded an institute of plastic arts and organised production on a large scale. The Museo della Cartapesta opened in 2009 inside the Castello Carlo V, according to the same article.
Two accounts of how a figure is built
- The culture-site article: paper soaked and broken into pulp, mixed with glue and binders, shaped by hand over wooden structures or moulds, dried slowly, sealed and painted. It warns that drying too fast can cause cracks.
- A Google Arts and Culture story: a base of twisted straw around an iron core, hands, feet and head modelled in clay, then paper pasted in layers with a flour glue called ponnula, with copper sulphate added against woodworm and alum against mould. The finishing step, fuocheggiatura, reshapes folds with small red-hot spoons.
These may describe different periods or different kinds of figure. Our reading: neither source says so, so we set both down and settle nothing.
Dates in order
- 4th century BC: underground burial chamber, according to Britannica.
- 2nd century: amphitheatre, according to Wikipedia.
- 6th century: Lecce becomes a diocese, according to Britannica.
- 1353: Santa Croce begun, according to Wikipedia and the tourism site.
- 1463: passes to the Aragonese kings of Naples, according to Britannica.
- 1549: Santa Croce work resumes, according to Wikipedia.
- 1630: Baroque monuments begin to be added, according to Wikipedia.
- 1695: Santa Croce completed, according to Wikipedia.
- 2009: Museo della Cartapesta opens, according to the culture-site article.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia is an open encyclopaedia anyone can edit. Britannica is an edited reference work. Italy’s tourism site is written to attract visitors. The culture-site article is a magazine-style piece. The Google Arts and Culture page is a story platform for cultural material; we do not know who wrote it.
What we left out
We left out admission details, opening hours and directions. We left out the names of living craftspeople, prices, and any claim about how many workshops survive, because the sources we read give no count.
Quick answers
What stone is Lecce built from? A soft limestone called pietra leccese, easy to work and suited to sculpture, according to Wikipedia. Britannica calls it light yellow.
How long did Santa Croce take to build? Construction began in 1353, halted until 1549 and was completed in 1695, according to Wikipedia.
What is Lecce cartapesta made of? Layers of paper pasted with flour glue over a straw and iron base, according to a Google Arts and Culture story. A culture-site article describes pulp shaped over moulds.
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Roam first. Shop later.