CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCO DELLA SCARPA, Presentation - Ai Voice

As you can see, the Church of San Francesco della Scarpa — literally “St. Francis of the Shoe” — is one of the most unusual churches in Lecce. It stands out from the others for a surprising detail: it doesn’t have a façade.
Originally, of course, the façade did exist, but at the end of the 19th century it was demolished to make space for the large portico of the former Palmieri Boarding School, the neoclassical building you can see in front of you. With the construction of the colonnade, the church’s entrance was hidden and the nave shortened, giving it the distinctive appearance it still has today.

According to tradition, St. Francis of Assisi, on his return from the Holy Land in 1219, stopped nearby to pray. That’s why, a few years later, the Franciscan friars built a church and a convent right here, on land donated by the noble Guarini family, Dukes of Poggiardo.
In the following centuries, San Francesco della Scarpa became one of Lecce’s main spiritual centers and the burial place of its most illustrious families. Among the most important funerary monuments is that of the great preacher Friar Roberto Caracciolo, which is still preserved today in the Chapel of St. Louis.

Between 1699 and 1714, the church was rebuilt in Baroque style, with new chapels, a large transept, and a deep presbytery. The ceiling decorations were commissioned from the painter Tommaso De Leo, who gave the interior an elegant and harmonious atmosphere.
The 19th century, however, changed everything: when the religious orders were suppressed, the friars were forced to abandon the convent, and many sacred furnishings were dismantled and moved elsewhere....