Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Italy's Top 18
Basilica di Santa Croce
DANITA DELIMONT / GETTY IMAGES ©
17
There's baroque, and then there's
barocco leccese
(Lecce baroque), the hyperextra-
vagant spin-off defining many Puglian towns. Making it all possible was the local stone, so
soft that art historian Cesare Brandi claimed it could be carved with a penknife.
Craftspeople crowded facades with swirling designs, gargoyles and strange zoomorphic
figures. Queen of the crop is Lecce's Basilica di Santa Croce (
Click here
), so insanely de-
tailed the Marchese Grimaldi said it made him think a lunatic was having a nightmare.
