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Among the
most precious treasures that are part of Salento, the holy places have got a
first rank position thanks to the deep devotion of the local people who have
kept uncorrupt for millennia the universal values of the dead worship, the suol
survival, the mistery of the other word, the belief in an onnipotent God. It may
seem very parochial, but salentine people have their heart in the legend which
relates Saint Peter’s landing at Santa Maria di Leuca, having chosen Salento
and ist stony fields as the start of his evangelizing journey.
Hermit-byzantine
crypts
Among
the holy places, the hermit-byzantine crypts represent the different elements of
the same reality, the suol, which is the authentic keeper of the mistery of the
universe. If in the beginning of time it had its shape and matter in the
palafittes and dolmens, in the two millennia of the christian era it
externalized in two symmetrical and
antithetical solutions: the
digging and the elevation. These
solutions were not casual but the result of ancient
traditions: the
prehistoric hypogeal temple which evolved in the forms pertaining to messapia
and magna graecia and the pagan temple of the greek-roman civilization.
As to the hermit-byzantine crypts and the general phenomenon of the
out-of-wall holy digs, they are linked to the iconoclastic fight sparked off by
Leone III, the emperor of Byzantium, in the 8th century, when a multitude of
hermits streamed to Salento. Leading an ascetic life, the hermits first occupied
the caves along the coast and then the ones spread in the hinterland, converting
them into small churches and lodgings for the night.
You
need only to visit the following crypts: S. Marina in Muro Leccese, S. Apollonia
in San Dana near Leuca, Madonna del Gonfalone in Tricase, S. Marina in Miggiano,
Coelimanna in Supersano, S. Maria degli Angeli and SS. Stefani in Poggiardo and
Vaste, Favana
in
Veglie and all the others that you find in Giurdignano, Carpignano Salentino,
Casarano, Gallipoli, Ruffano, Ortelle, Otranto (S. Nicola di Casole), Sanarica,
San Cassiano, Specchia, Squinzano, Ugento (the Holy Rood) and Giuliano to
discover all the passion and enthusiasm which the anonymous frescoers put in
giving life to their colours.
In addition to the crypts, the churches, jewels of art and faith, increase
Salento’s broad heritage. Some of them date back to the lower middle ages
under the byzantines first (S. Peter’s in Otranto, Casaranello) and the
normans then (S.
Eufemia’s in Specchia, S. Peter’s in Giuliano, S. John the Baptit’s in Patù
and later on the magnificently frescoed S.
Caterina d’Alessan-dria’s in Galatina, Cerrate Abbey in Squinzano) while the
most numerous ones belong to the renaissance.
The
towns of baroque
 The
baroque deserves more atttention since
it represents the most dramatic point of contact between faith and art; it
reaches its highest level in the architectural eccentricity of its renowned
world capital: Lecce. Santa Croce Basilica alone is worthy of a trip to Salento
from the farthest places in the world. Lecce is the triumph of baroque and of
Lecce stone, starting from the magnificent facades of its churches, monasteries,
public buildings and private houses till the humblest of its balconies and
portals.
The baroque in Lecce and in all the other towns in the Province, such as the
greek Galatina (rich in 18th century monuments among which SS. Peter and Paul’s
Cathedral is famous), Galatone (with greek origins it is
proud of its sanctuary of the Crocifisso della Pietà, the church of the
Black Friars and the Major Church, Nardò (with the baroque Piazza Salandra and
the well-known S. Domenico’s Church) Gallipoli and Alessano, is the elegy of
the religious art in Salento and its great last expression.
The steeples dominate over this scenery of widespread devotion, from the
sail-like ones of the small churches to the distinguished spires of Lecce,
Soleto, Sternatia, Maglie and Copertino which are the stone exception in the
plain salentine land.
The
places of the suol
The
places of the suol are to be found: in the magnificent Cathedral of Otranto with
its portal and rose window dating
back to the late 15th century and its polychrome mosaic of the 12th century
which gives astonishment even to the most detached visitor; in the ancient
christian mosaics of Santa Maria della Croce’s (Casaranello) in Casarano; in
S. Domenico’s Church in Nardò; in the 17th century S. Agata’s Cathedral and
Purità’s Church in Gallipoli; in the remote the Devil’s Church in Tricase;
in the medieval frescoes of Santa Maria di Cerrate, one of the hermits’
dwellings; in Leuca Sanctuary, an obliged stopping place for every man of faith;
in the magnificently frescoed vaulted ceiling of the gothic S. Caterina
d’Alessandria’s in Galatina. They are not only the sanctuaries of gothic,
renaissance and baroque art, but also of the art which is an all-time expression.
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