LECCE – The villas and municipal parks are precious places for every city, a sort of garden available to everyone in which to take refuge to isolate themselves from the chaos of traffic and relax by reading, walking, or simply sitting on a bench enjoying the shade of the trees.
The municipal villa of Lecce, due to its position halfway between the historic center and the main shopping streets, lends itself perfectly to the function of locus amoenus in a city congested by traffic and smog.
To access the municipal villa from the main entrance you need to go to via XXV Luglio, but three other entrances located in via Achille costa, via San Francesco d’Assisi and via Giuseppe Garibaldi guarantee access from multiple points.
To those who live in Lecce, the municipal villa may appear like a large garden, but in reality it extends over an area of over 34 thousand square metres.
The project for its construction dates back to the two-year period 1817/1818, when the Marquis Giuseppe Ceva Grimaldi, superintendent of Terra d’Otranto, initiated a series of interventions to enhance the area close to the city walls.
For the creation of the green space, the task was entrusted to the municipal engineer Bernardino Bernardini who, together with the naturalist Gaetano Stella, developed a project which received the positive opinion of the Board of Directors.
In 1819, the authorization was signed for the creation of a green area which included tree-lined avenues and a botanical garden.
The municipal villa, as it appears today, is the result of a series of interventions which over the years have modified the original project.
In 1830 the engineer Luigi Pino will have 6,454.26 ducats available to carry out the project.
The perimeter of the municipal villa was fenced with a painted wooden balustrade and stone columns.
Inside, Gaetano Stella, who in the meantime had been appointed director of the Botanical Garden and first director of the “public Villa of Lecce in front of the House of the Intendency”, decorates the space with fruit trees, ornamental trees and rose gardens, taking care of affix an identification label to each plant.
In Gaetano Stella’s idea, the native and exotic plants, in addition to the pine forest, would act as a corollary to the flowers in the flowerbeds which would alternate with the changing seasons.
A deplorable custom of the time, justifiable only with the “culture” of the time, required that a cage with some wolves inside was placed inside the villa.
The poor beasts, deprived of freedom and dignity, in addition to being a disgusting attraction for many years, were the reason for the name of the villa, which until 1883 was known as “Villa della Lupa”.
From 1883 it was instead named after Giuseppe Garibaldi and was subjected to extensive restoration work at the behest of the new director Cosimo De Giorgi who reclaimed the forest by leveling the hills wanted by his predecessor and added new trees and flowers transforming the municipal villa into a meeting place and locations for events.
In the 1930s, with the advent of fascism, by decision of the Opera Nazionale Balilla, the original plant was definitively canceled and in 1941, Mussolini ordered about two thirds of the surface to be cultivated with vegetables, barley and legumes to the detriment of flowers .
The caretaker of the municipal villa could stay in an elegant pavilion in composite neoclassical style such as “La Flora”, designed in 1840 by the architect Benedetto Torsello.
In 1859, a fountain was added to the “La Flora” pavilion which for a long time hosted swans.
In 2000 the fountain was renovated by enlarging the main basin and incorporating it into a pre-existing neoclassical style structure.
The fountain today is divided into two distinct structures crossed by a small bridge and delimited by an iron railing.
From 1860 a period of major renovations began for the municipal villa; in addition to the fountain, new structures were introduced, such as the caretaker’s quarters near the entrance, new flowering plants and the pavilion used as a bar inaugurated in 1871 near the open space. central, gas lanterns were also positioned for evening lighting and in 1873 two life-size terracotta lions appeared on Lecce stone bases, sculpted by Luigi Morrone.
Between 1886 and 1889, 12 marble and stone busts were placed, depicting illustrious Salento figures, 10 of which were the work of the sculptor Eugenio Maccagnani, while 2 were the work of Giuseppe Mangionello.
The busts, initially placed along the perimeter of the central open space, were later moved along the avenues and over time, from twelve, they became 22.
Every self-respecting municipal villa deserves to be populated by children playing and that of Lecce is no exception, in fact it is equipped with two play areas, a larger one is located near the fountain and is paved with an anti-trauma carpet, while a larger small one is located near the bar.
What was once a stable is now also a playroom.
The municipal villa today presents itself as a classic Italian-style garden: the space is divided into four sectors by two road axes and converge towards the center in a circular square in which stands a small temple originally owned by the Marcelline Sisters.
The small temple is one of the main attractions of the municipal villa, in neoclassical style, accessed by three steps and the dome is supported by eight columns with Corinthian capitals that support a richly decorated architrave.
The dome is decorated with green majolica and an iron cross is placed on the top.
The flowerbeds have a regular perimeter and are delimited by concrete or stone curbs.
The wooden fence was made of a masonry parapet with iron railing.
And so it is that in the shade of pines, palms, poplars, willows, mimosas, araucarias, acacias, locust trees, Judas trees, cypresses, cedars, eucalyptus and a specimen of Firmiana simplex, agave, yucca and Phytolacca dioica, the people of Lecce stroll , kids love each other, students skip school, the elderly rest, tourists refresh themselves.
by Claudia Forcignanò
Tags: Discovering Salento municipal villa Lecce green lung city
