CHURCH OF SANTA CHIARA, Church Of Santa Chiara

Hi, my name’s Jill, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Church of Santa Chiara.

The Church of Santa Chiara, built over an existing church dating to the 15th century, is another delightful example of Lecce Baroque.

It was rebuilt between 1687 and 1691 by the Lecce architect, Giuseppe Cino, who designed many of the most interesting edifices in the city, including the Seminary in Piazza del Duomo.

On this occasion, however, Cino added a significantly innovative feature: if you look at the facade, you’ll realize that it is not flat, like almost all the churches in Lecce, but slightly convex. This architectural technique was experimented with in Rome by the biggest names in Baroque architecture, such as Bernini and Borromini. In Lecce, it had already appeared on the Church of San Matteo, the masterpiece by the architect Larducci, who probably shared several ideas with Cino on how to build the new church....