Lecce History And Culture, Italien

Extending into the Mediterranean, the Salento was always a frontier land: its history is clear testimony of this. In the Bronze age the Salento was inhabited by Indo-European populations, as shown by the dozens of dolmens and menhirs found in the lower Salento.

Around the 5th century B.C. it was the Messapi who settled in this land. A population of farmers and livestock breeders, they gave a decisive impetus to the birth of the cities. The most important ruins are found in Muro Leccese and Ugento.

In the 8th century B.C. Greek colonists founded cities along the coast such as Gallipolis, Otranto and Taranto that would have become the reference point of the Magna Grecia. From the III century B.C. the Salento became a Roman province. Lecce, the ancient Lupiae, was governed by the Romans who from the time of the imperial Lupiae surrounded it by walls, and built a forum, a theater, an amphitheater and a port.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, Lecce began an inexorable decline. The city, sacked several times by Goths and Byzantines, was reduced to a modest village. Over many centuries, Otranto was the true capital of the Salento, under the Byzantine dominion.

With the Norman dominion, the history of Lecce blossoms again. The palace of the Earl Goffredo d'Altavilla excels for the splendor of its court, second only to Palermo.

The Angevin dynasty followed around 1356, when the earldom passed to the D'Enghiens, a dynasty that included the Countess Maria D'Enghien, a strong personality with an outstanding ability to govern.

With Ferrante d'Aragona in 1463, the city was absorbed by the Kingdom of Naples. Lecce became the site of the Sacro Regio Provincial Council. This was the period of epidemics and Turkish incursions, which threatened the cities at their gates.

Following the Aragonese was the Spanish dominion, the most thriving period of Lecce, which lasted for more than two centuries. Commercial activities were blossoming and attracted Tuscan, Greek-Albanese, Hebrew and especially Venetian communities to the city. Emperor Carlo V fortified Lecce with strong walls and a very modern castle.

In this period, Lecce became one of the most beautiful and important cities of Italy, the pulsing heart of cultural and artistic activities that gave an impetus to the phenomenon of the Leccese Baroque. A great contribution was made to this artistic ferment by the work of a powerful enlightened bishop: Luigi Pappacoda.

In 1734 began the domination of the Bourbons, which ended only in 1862 with the annexing of the south to the Kingdom of Italy.

Autoren:
Nozio

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