LECCE – Also known as the church of Sant’Angelo, Santa Maria di Costantinopoli is one of the oldest in Lecce. It is located in Piazza SS. Addolorata, near the Greek Church and watched over the city as early as 1061.
According to the original mapping, the church stood outside the walls, but in 1500 Charles V included it in the expansion process, incorporating it into the urban fabric.
Adjacent to the church is the Convent of the Augustinian Fathers who for eight centuries brought faith and culture to Lecce by managing a novitiate school of philosophy, but this was not enough to prevent the havoc perpetrated in the early 1800s following the suppression of the religious orders who transformed the structure (already rebuilt in 1300 and then in 1663 by Giuseppe Zimbalo) into barracks and military depot.
The altars were violated, the frames torn down and the roof destroyed.
A wound that bled until 1828, the year in which Ferdinand II of Bourbon issued the edict which, once the structure had been entrusted to the Confraternita dell’Addolorata, allowed its reconstruction and return to its ancient splendors.
From 1833 the convent hosted the San Ferdinando hospice which welcomed young orphans and educated them in arts and crafts.
Starting from 1860 the hospice changed its name again becoming the Collegio Giuseppe Garibaldi.
The objective beauty of this church depends on multiple factors, as well as its story of a phoenix rising from its ashes (common to many churches and temples).
What is striking first of all is the façade of which only the first order was completed by Zimbalo (rumors insinuated at the time that it was due to the financial constraints of the Augustinian Fathers), but which nevertheless presents a refined baroque decoration which anticipates a first hint of Rococo.
The central portal designed by Emanuele Manieri in 1750, covered with bronze sheets in relief, is framed by two fluted Corinthian columns to which the lateral pilasters explicitly refer.
The side niches, two on each side, are empty and framed by a fine decoration.
On the architrave four cherubs stand astride a festoon of flowers and on the lunette sit two angels who direct their gaze to the pedestal which houses the Madonna and Child.
The entire façade is crossed by horizontal conics decorated with symbolic motifs.
The plan of the church is a Latin cross with a basilica layout with three naves, the two side naves of which house eight altars.
The interior is a riot of baroque opulence, even the most devout visitor cannot help but look around enchanted by such earthly beauty that will surely be grateful to the Creator.
Immediately on the right (side dedicated to the entrance), there are, in order of travel, the altar of the Annunciation, of the Madonna of the Rosary, of Sant’Antonio da Padova and Santa Rita da Cascia.
In the transepts there are two altars; the one on the right is dedicated to the Virgin of Sorrows with a papier-mâché statue from 1832, the work of Antonio Maccagnani, the one on the left is dedicated to Saint Anthony with a canvas by Alessandro Calabrese.
In the presbytery, the main altar, simpler and more linear than the others, is dedicated to the Madonna of Constantinople.
Entering the side nave that leads to the exit, you will find the altar dedicated to San Nicola da Tolentino, San Michele Arcangelo, the altar of the Immaculate Conception and finally that of San Tommaso da Villanova.
Each altar hosts a canvas: the Annunciation, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Rita of Cascia, the Judgment of King Solomon, the Madonna of Constantinople, the Triumph of David, the Golden Calf, Judith and Holophene, Saint Francis who receives the Stigmata, the Adoration of the Magi, the Assumption and the Holy Family.
Of notable beauty are the Junoesque statues of Saint Thomas of Villanova and the Archangel Michael.
In the sacristy it is possible to admire the canvas of the Assumption.
by Claudia Forcignanò
