The Visit Lecce website (
visit link) informs us:
"Santa Maria della Pace or San Giovanni di Dio church, together with the adjacent convent of the Fatebenefratelli, it rises on the central Giuseppe Palmieri street.
It was rebuilt by Mauro Manieri, between 1738 and 1742.
The Façade
The church has a sober façade, characterized by the movement of the wall surface generated by the retreat of the two lateral bodies and by the articulation in two superimposed orders, subdivided by a sturdy string-course frame and concluded by a mixtilinear termination with inflected arches. The first order, punctuated by pilasters, presents a large entrance portal on which was placed the heraldic shield of the religious order. The second order, connected to the first by feathered volutes, houses a central window.
The interior
The interior has a high nave with a rectangular plan covered, in the perimeter walls, with smooth Corinthian pilasters punctuated by two short chapels. The vaulted ceiling is lunette with light stucco coverings.
The altars, all in Lecce stone, have elaborate machines with twisted columns. The most prominent painting is that of the high altar depicting the “Visione di San Giovanni di Dio” (Vision of St. John of God), made by Bonaventura Manieri, daughter and sister of the architects Mauro and Emanuele.
Inside the church there were also some papier-mâché statues of the early 20th century, now preserved in a room in the Castle of Charles V, except the one depicting the Madonna Orante, which is still exhibited in the church.
It was adopted by the Lecce first grade secondary school Antonio Galateo in 2010 and in 2012 with the "Adopt a monument" project."
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