Church of San Niccolò and Cataldo

Entrusted to the care of the FAI which makes it accessible three days a week, the church dedicated to Saints Niccolò and Cataldo stands out in the lush and silent green of the city cemetery. As evidenced by the inscriptions that run at the base of the lunettes of the two portals, the church was founded in 1180 by the Count of Lecce Tancredi d’Altavilla together with the adjacent monastery. The monumental complex was then donated first to the Benedictine monks and then to the Olivetan fathers at the behest of Alfonso II of Naples, going through about six centuries of history, from the end of the twelfth to the eighteenth century, until 1994 when the structures of the monastery became a forge of ideas and culture by hosting a seat of the University of Salento.

Precious example of Apulian Romanesque located outside the city walls, the church of Santi Niccolò e Cataldo welcomes visitors with its façade on which the original portal and rose window stand out while all around explodes the Lecce Baroque signed by Giuseppe Cino. On the right opens the sixteenth-century cloister in the center of which the seventeenth-century canopy overlooks the well with its twisted columns. The interior features the basilica plan with three naves adorned with Baroque altars up to the heart of the structure where the high octagonal drum of the dome stands on which the coronation of the Virgin is depicted. Originally the church was entirely covered with frescoes which were subsequently plastered and repainted with decorations in the Pompeian style.

It is possible to visit the church on Thursday, Saturday and Monday from 9.30 to 12.30.

Info: 338/1534204.