 |
 |
|
|
WEALTH OF REMAINS |
  
|
| What strikes us most as we drive along the roads of Salento is the variety of its colours. On arriving in Lecce and gazing on the baroque Piazza del Duomo, we are struck by the intensity of the warm pale yellow that is typical of stone in Lecce, worked here with skill and sensitivity, in the arabesque embroidery of baroque art. The baroque flourished in Lecce towards the end of the sixteenth century, in a town that had been almost Spanish up till then, and literally exploded in the second half of the seventeenth century, lasting for the whole of the eighteenth. Baroque art in Lecce has an imprint of its own, a highly original taste and connotation, which are the result of the cultural heritage of its exponents, who grew up in the shade of the great romantic tradition. So Lecce is a casket of fine precious baroque, filling the air with incredible embroidery. In an extraordinary, skillful interplay of light and shade we are fascinated by the garlands on a well, the leaves on a capitol, the wings of a cherub, the spaces bordering with the sky in the broad cloisters of San Cataldo. Venturing into the narrow winding streets, we find the enchanting church of Santa Croce, the majestic Seminary and Palazzo Marrese, the magnificent Piazza Duomo, the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre and the wonderful atmosphere of Piazza Sant'Oronzo. The whole territory of Salento has a wealth of remains from the Bronze Age (two thousand years B.C.). Many of the most representative and mysterious megalithic constructions of that period have been found: dolmens and mehirs, the former composed of gigantic stone slabs laid like table tops over other blocks thrust into the ground, the latter tall pillars of roughly bewn stone standing vertically in the ground like lances. We can admire the "Placa" and "Gurgulante" dolmens along the road from Melendugno to Calimera, the large "Scusi" dolmen near Minervino and the menbir near Pisignano. Other characteristic features are the little elliptical mounds formed of heaps of stones, some of them several metres tall. They are of uncertain origin, and may equally well have been look-out posts and defence works or tombs or funeral monuments. The one near Martano may be easily recognized. To the south of Lecce we find villages and small towns, each with at least a church, a monastery or an old palazzo with a famous past. To the east, between San Cataldo and Torre Specchia Ruggeri, is the nature reserve of Cesine, the most important wetland in Salento and one of the most interesting reserves in Italy. With its dunes, pools, plants and Mediterranean maquis, the reserve offers various environments where we can find exceptional plants and all kinds of birds, a heritage of inestimable value that must be defended and protected. Near the reserve is Acaja, a fortified town of the early sixteenth century. Then, just a few kilometres from one another, come a series of villages scattered over the plain in a landscape dominated by fig trees, olive groves and dry-stone dykes erected on the dark red earth, where the many rocks make the farmers' work even harder.
|
||
