LECCE
This City of Apulia (Puglia),
main town of the Province, can be found in the Salentina Peninsula.
Situated 12 km from the Adriatic Coast and 25 km from the
Ionic coast, Lecce is founded in the centre
of a fertile plain, whose grounds are covered by limestone
marly, widely used in the local building (the Ground of Lecce
or Pietra Leccese (stone)).
It was the old Roman Municipality of Lupiae, which took on
a certain importance during the 2nd Century at the time of
Marco Aurelio. The City was subjected to long, bitter disputes
during the Gothic Wars in the 6th Century and was conquered
and pillaged twice by the King of Goths, Totila, in 542 and
549. The City fell into decline under the Longobards and due
to the ascent of Otranto, after the death of Ottone II (983)
it changed hands and was controlled by the Byzantine Catapano
of Bari; having also been contested by the Arabs. It then
became an important religious and cultural centre. After the
Norman Conquest (around 1040), Lecce became a county and followed
the destiny of the kingdom. It was given by Federico II to
his natural son Mandredi; passed on to the Angiò (13th
Century), object of a Brienne feud, who tried to build a wall
around it, (14th Century) then by the Enghien and the Orsini-Del
Balzo; in 1463, it “immediately” became a subject
of the Crown of Naples. During the 15th Century, Lecce had
become a meeting point for commercial traffic in the lower
Adriatic and was therefore, frequented by merchants from Florence,
Venice and the Balkans; allowing it to reach notable, economic
stability. Having noticed this, the Turks attacked the City,
but were repelled in 1480.
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