We conclude this short walk with our usual invitation: this is a city that absolutely must not be missing from your visit book.

A note:
photos 4 and 5: church of Santa Chiara the ceiling is in papier-mâché not with a wooden drawer

A bit of history:
Legend has it that the city was founded in 1200 BC from Malennio king of Salento and descendant of Minos.
In III BC with all the Salento it was conquered by the Romans.
Then after a brief Greek domination, it was under the domination of the Eastern Roman Empire for five centuries.
From the 6th century it underwent various dominations until the Norman conquest when the city regained commercial and political importance.
From 1463 it was subject to the Kingdom of Naples.
Until around 1630 the city was subject to various threats of Ottoman incursions, so much so that Charles V had the walls and the defense castle built (see the castle of Charles V).
Starting from 1630 the city was transformed into an open-air construction site in which religious congregations and private citizens built increasingly beautiful and important works, giving life to the "Lecce Baroque".
After a short period of Austrian domination and after the Bourbon restoration, in 1821 Lecce participated in the Carbonari uprisings and was later united to the Kingdom of Italy.

For more info
Lecce: the baroque city - 1/3
Lecce: the baroque city - 2/3