LECCE
The Spanish being the new
owners of the Kingdom of Naples fortified the City. During
the Thirty Year War in 1647, contemporarily in Palermo and
Naples, the population, led by Girolamo Paladini and Giovanni
Spinola, rose up against the Spanish revenue authorities.
A further revolt came about in 1848: the liberals constituted
a provisional government, but then had to suffer persecution
from the Bourbonic Government. In 1860 a provisional government
rose up, which declared the fall of the Bourbons; then followed
its annexing to the Italian reign.
Necropolis and Messapiche inscriptions, document the origins
of the City. From Roman times, we have the theatre and amphitheatre
(from the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD), in which were discovered
interesting sculptural decorations and low reliefs; amongst
the statues, there is a notable Polycletus torso and an Amazon
of the type said to be from Berlin. The local Provincial Museum
preserves the areas finds; amongst these, numerous Apulian
vases and the Pelike (small images, also votive reliefs) from
the so called Painter from Chicago.
Lecce preserves the intact Borgognone Structures of the Churches
of Santi Nicolò and Cataldo, erected in 1180, the most
decorated Norman church in the area, and that 16th Century
one of Sedile, old Council seat, to keep secret the classical
testimonies; but inside its walls, reconstructed by Carlo
V in 1540, the face of the City of Baroque, almost adding
to the rhythm of a first gentile Rococo.
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