Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce

Founded in 1960, the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce, since 1970, is housed in the ancient Dominican convent of S. Giovanni D'Aymo, adjacent to the church of S. Giovanni Battista, commonly called "Rosario" at Porta Rudiae, One of the entrances to the Old Town. The site, one of the most beautiful and integral of the baroque city, marks the beginning of the path that the bishop Aloisio Pappacoda wanted to symbolize the power of the church in the mid-sixteenth century: from Porta Rudiae to Piazza Duomo, the street is condensed by a succession Of major architectural episodes, largely by Giuseppe Zimbalo (1620-11710), a bishop's trusted engineer, such as the church of S. Teresa, to the baroque cathedral and its stunning bell tower. The clear frame of the façade of the Convent of St. John D'A / mo, rhythmed by six jewels of giant order and finished at the two ends, by elegant portals crowned by the overhanging balconies, is in the mid-700s .Tributed by some To Emanuele Manieri, however, it is incumbent upon him, except for him, to that bourgeois Koin of which Emanuele and Father Mauro are initiators and masters, capable of mastering the urbanistically the relationship building - context with architectural proposals far removed from the ruthless baroque vistosity and rather Tending to an organic and dignified connection to the structural mesh of the city. Thus the facade of the 18th century faces with sobriety the forms of the sixteenth century factory of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, the work of Giangiacomo dell'Acaya, and together form, for those who enter By Porta Rudiae, a kind of solemn preamble to the amazing encounter with the last work of Zimbalo, the magnificent church of St. John the Baptist (1691 -1728). The events related to the monumental complex of the church and the convent of the Dominicans have however more remote origins: The first foundation with the Bonifacio IX bubble of 9.1 1