Corte San Giuseppe

The interior is worth a few minutes of leisurely looking, especially the main altar. It has a large stone Baroque altarpiece with four Solomonic columns and a canvas showing Saint Joseph and the Child. At the top is an exceptional bas-relief of the Flight into Egypt by an anonymous artist, and there are two more Baroque stone altarpieces on either side, dedicated to Saint Apollonius and Saint Oronzo. Entry is free. The church is small and beautiful, right in the historic center, and a fine example of Lecce Baroque. Its octagonal plan is unusual in Italy. Semicircular arches on columns support a large dome painted ochre and white, with four stained-glass windows showing scenes from Saint Joseph’s life. The façade is made of Lecce stone blocks and has two levels. On the lower one, a central doorway sits between six engaged pillars with Corinthian capitals. Above the entrance is a small stained-glass image of Saint Joseph with the Christ Child. The upper level has another richly decorated window with the Latin inscription “De Domo David,” the motto of the Confraternity of Saint Joseph, based at this little church. A broken pediment crowns the structure, with an iron cross rising at its center, and a bell gable on the left serves as the belfry. The drum-shaped front combines a convex semicircle with mixtilinear surfaces, alternating curves and straight lines. The Church of San Giuseppe was built in 1758 on the remains of an earlier 16th-century church. Its design shows the influence of the Church of San Matteo in Lecce, which in turn reflects Francesco Borromini’s architecture, as seen at the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome.