Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce

Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce Profile

Founded in 1960, the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce, since 1970 is housed in a Dominican convent of S. John D'Aymo, adjacent to the church of S. John the Baptist, commonly called the "Rosary" at Port Rudiae, one of the entrances to Old Town. The site, one of the most beautiful and intact baroque city, marks the beginning of the desired path in the middle of '600 by Bishop Aloysius Pappacoda to symbolize the power of the church: Rudiae from Porta Piazza Duomo, the way is condensed from a series episodes of significant architectural largely the work of Joseph Zimbalo (1620? -1710), engineer of the bishop, as the church of S. Teresa, to the baroque cathedral and its bell tower. The clear casing of the facade of the convent of S. John D'A / m, punctuated by giant order of pilasters six and ended at either end, with elegant portals crowned with overhanging balconies, is half of 700. Attributed by some to Emanuele Manieri, it can be ascribed, if not to him, that koine bourgeois whose father Emanuele and Mauro are initiators and masters, capable of mastering the relationship building urbanistic - architectural context with the proposed long gone from the glittering baroque flamboyance, and rather tend to a decent connection to the organic and structural mesh So the città.-700 faces the front of the existing forms of a sober-century building of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, by Giangiacomo dell'Acaya, and together they make for those who enter through Gate Rudiae, a sort of solemn preamble to surprising encounter with the work of Zimbalo last, the magnificent church of St. John the Baptist (1691 -1728). The monumental events concerning the church and convent of the Dominicans, however, have the remotest origins: The first foundation, with a splash of Boniface IX of 9.1 1. 1389, was made possible through the donations of benefactors John D'Aymo, and was built in the Gothic style of which remain today, in the convent, some artifacts and a fifteenth-century fresco depicting St. Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata. The importance of the monastery grew over time. For the Dominican fathers was entrusted with the administration of the nearby Hospital of the Holy Spirit (until 1514) and two monasteries of cloistered Dominican nuns, S. And S. Maria Nova Visitation of Mary de 'Checrì, also in 1652 I was transferred to the Centre of Studies in philosophy and theology of the Fathers Preachers, first in Andria. All this led to the necessity of rebuilding in a more reasonable is the church, "not proportionate, small, dark, unable to et the people" (1691), that the convent, "old, damp and dark" (half of 700). The events related to the presence of Dominicans will conclude in 1809, with the suppression of the convent as a result of the Napoleonic revolutionary laws and the acquisition of the property by the State Property Regio.
In 1812 there is implanted in the Manufacture of tobacco that determines, with the need to adapt to the new convent building's needs "industrial", a series of profound changes to the original architecture. And 'the 1905 demolition of an entire block of Via S. Maria del Paradiso to make room for an imposing three-story building leaning against the convent a few years after the killing of a sixteenth-century walls of the trunk behind. In the early 60's former convent was abandoned and transferred to tobacco plants in a modern building outside the city: the property in poor condition and extensively remodeled, delivered to the Ministry of Education, is used to host Academy of Fine Arts the restoration and upgrading of the monastery's new features is the 1973, but the demolition and reconstruction of "style" of the Gothic courtyard at the rear of the work, determine, in 1978, their suspension part of the Fine Arts Today, while utilizzandosi partially, by necessity of space, even the unfinished rear body of the building activity on the premises of the Academy is held fully on ground floor and first floor around the eighteenth century cloister overlooking Via Libertini. The elegant cloister, rectangular in shape with 5 to 6 arches and a central well, is enclosed on two sides by walls of sixteenth dell'Acava Giangiacomo, which is implanted on the beautiful rooftop garden, on one side of the church and the adjacent 'last of three large rooms corresponding to the facade, since 1997 the Gallery of Art Academy.