Convent of Celestini

Beautiful old Building

The Lecce Baroque is not only evident in the churches, but also in the profane buildings: one of these is the former Celestine convent, the religious order founded by Pope Celestine V, that of the great refusal. In 1353 the Count Gualtiero VI, the Duke of Athens, the one who tried to become lord of Florence, decided to found their convent where the Castle is currently: when Charles V decided to build the new fortress, the Celestine convent was obviously demolished, so these religious had to build a new convent in 1539. Therefore, the work of the new convent began in 1549 under the Abbey of Don Matteo Napolitano and Don Girolamo La Sena and entrusted to Gabriele Riccardi, the same architect from Santa Croce, who began the work starting from the internal courtyard. However, the long raised elevation of the building was built between 1659 and 1695, with two orders of windows framed by exuberant cornices. The author of the decorations is Giuseppe Zimbalo, whose very personal Baroque style and the recurring motif of the lanceolate tip can be recognized, here sculpted as a sort of 'signature' not only at the corners and on the pediments of the windows but also in the frieze of the string course cornice. The entrance portal, placed in the center, has a decoration of cherubs and bunches of fruit. The atrium of the Convent is framed by 24 arches on 44 columns, to which in the restoration of 1811, some piers were placed on which a balcony. In the bizarre capitals of composite style and in the keys of the vaults of the quadrilateral portico, initial letters never deciphered and various family coats of arms are carved. After the suppression of the orders, which took place in 1807, the monastery became a government palace. It currently houses the offices of the Prefecture and the Province.

Nice inner courtyard of the convent, to see