Photos

Another jewel of Barocco leccese, hope you enjoy it, sorry for the cars, but it was not possible to remove them. As I said in one of my latest photos of this city, due to narrowness of the square besides the church, I was able only to take a picture from the bottom.

The Church of the Carmine, adjacent to the convent of the Carmelitani, introduces one strange variation of the plant of Greek cross, reproducing the shape of the human foot for devotion towards one Biblical tradition. Its inner space with a central plant has three chapels head for side and in the center a deep presbiterio and covered, to the height of transetto, from one green decorated cupola. It is the tallest chuch in the surroundings. In the skillful transetto the altar of S.Francesco di Paola is placed with the statue of the religious one, realized in cartapesta (a type of work to realize statues in which Lecce craftsman are particularly skilful, making original figures with meticulous details and exquisite workmanship, often requiring several weeks to complete) and the altar of S. Anna who introduces the paint of the Vergine with the Child between the S. Anna, S.Giuseppe and S.Gioacchino staues. In the opposite side of the transetto is conserved the ancient lignea statue of the Vergine of the Carmelo, in the altar of the Purification of the Vergine. Behind the main altar we find the beautiful chorus and and numerous important paints of Serafino Elmo. Externally the Church of the Carmine is divided in three overlapped orders, leaving from the bottom, to the first level, most eccentric, we find the great portale centers it, placed side by side laterally from niches with saints statues and on the top an arched architrave with a medallion that represents the image of the Vergine of the Carmine. According to plan, the facade resumes the rhythms of the inferior order, proposing them in the window on the center and in the niches with the sculptures of S. Teresa D' Avila and Maddalena. The last advanced level visually resumes the entire structure of the facade. The construction of Church of the Carmine was begun in the 1714 by Cino and finished by Emanuele Manieri.