Nardò, the baroque bride dressed in black

Nardò is a city of about 30 thousand inhabitants in the province of Lecce. Like the entire area of ​​the province, it has origins linked to prehistory. The history of Nardò begins in the Paleolithic. In the caves of the Bay of Uluzzo.

Read: Uluzzo Bay and the Wonders of Neanderthal Man

The actual inhabited center of Nardò dates back to the 7th century BC with the presence of a Messapian settlement. In 269 BC, together with its port of Emporium Nauna (now Santa Maria al Bagno), it was conquered by the Romans and after the social war it became a municipium (Neretum).

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire and following the battles between the Byzantines and the Goths, it was absorbed by the Byzantine Empire and, for a short period, was annexed to the Lombard Kingdom. During the five hundred years of Byzantine rule, the presence of Basilian monks increased, whose influence determined the spread of the oriental rite and cult.

In the second half of the 13th century, it was under Angevin rule, which led to the birth and spread of feudalism. It was a fief of the Del Balzo family and in the 15th century it was involved in the struggles between the Aragonese, Venetians and Turks, later it became a fief of the Acquaviva family.

In quel periodo divenne il principale centro culturale del Salento, sede di Università, di Accademie e di studi letterari e filosofici e Nardò fu definita la Nuoua Atene litterarum.

With the abolition of feudalism, the city was no longer subject to the tyranny of the Acquaviva family, who however remained the owners of numerous properties.

Between 1943 and 1947, the Allied army decided to host in the hamlet of Santa Maria al Bagno over one hundred thousand Jews who had escaped the Nazi extermination camps and were travelling towards the nascent State of Israel.

Here some buildings were converted to the new needs. A house in the square hosted the synagogue and the Mondonuovo farm was used to build the kibbutz Elia. Among the numerous guests were the names of David Ben Gurion, Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir.

Read: The Hospitality Museum of Nardò

The historic center of Nardò is a real gem. A triumph of baroque art that stands out from Lecce for a baroque style with similar shapes, but with a darker and darker gradation. In fact, the stone used in Nardò is not the famous Lecce stone, but carparo, a tuff material that over time and due to the spread of lichens and efflorescence, takes on a grayish color.

The beating heart of Nardò is the refined Piazza Salandra, one of the most beautiful squares in Italy.

Arches, balconies, loggias, portals with rococo decorations and moving eighteenth-century lines compose a uniform picture in this square, which represents the heart of the city.

Among the buildings overlooking the square, there is the Palazzo di Città (Pretura), rebuilt in Rococo style after the earthquake of 1743 and flanked by the clock tower (where an employee winds it up daily), then we have the Sedile (second half of the 17th century), with the statue of S. Gregorio Armeno, one of the protectors of the city with S. Michele and S. Antonio di Padova, and the eighteenth-century church of S. Trifone, in honor of the saint who freed the city from an invasion of wasps.

In the centre of the square stands the tall spire of the Immaculate Conception, rich in friezes, festoons and cusps, erected in 1769 as thanks for having escaped the danger of the earthquake.

In a corner of the square, instead, you can admire the Fontana del Toro, by the sculptor Michele Gaballo. The bull is the symbol of Nardò. An old legend tells, in fact, that the town was founded in the exact spot where this animal made the water gush, but at the same time it also represents the Spanish Aragonese who arrived in Salento during the Renaissance.

The Basilica Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is an architectural complex probably built in the Norman era on the ruins of the old Basilian church of Santa Maria de Nerito, and has undergone several restoration works, especially in the eighteenth century. The exceptions are the frescoes of the main altar, which bear the signature of Cesare Maccari and were created in the early twentieth century.

One of the most interesting pieces is the Black Crucifix, a wooden statue, which owes its particular colour to the cedar wood used.

An ancient legend has it that the work, produced between the 5th and 6th centuries, bled during an attempted theft by the Turks in 1255. The latter, frightened, decided to flee as fast as they could.

The Church of the Madonna del Carmine and the adjacent convent constitute one of the most famous monastic complexes of Nardò. On the façade, which encloses all the Romanesque style, you can admire two niches that respectively house the statues of the Angel Nunziante and the Virgin Annunziata, while the entrance is protected by two lions. The interior, enriched by baroque stuccos, houses works of great artistic interest.

In Piazza San Domenico, adjacent to Piazza Salandra, we find the beautiful church dedicated to the Spanish saint. It is a building erected in the 16th century and originally dedicated to Santa Maria de Raccomandatis, it has been modified over the years and the three internal naves have been replaced, for preaching needs, by a single hall.

The church, destroyed by the earthquake of 1743, was almost entirely rebuilt.

The facade has always aroused the curiosity of tourists and scholars, by virtue of the decorations that characterize it. The upper part is almost devoid of ornamental elements, while the lower part is full of strange figures imbued with a magical symbolism that harks back to the flourishing of the alchemical tradition of the Renaissance.

Read: The Church of San Domenico in Nardò