The Palace of the Seminary of Lecce was built on the right side of Piazza Duomo by Bishop Michele Pignatelli, thanks to the contribution of many local nobles (1694). The project was entrusted to the great Lecce architect and sculptor Giuseppe Cino, who finished the work in 1709, under another bishop also called Pignatelli, Fabrizio, who was the creator of the expansion of the structure with the addition of the attic floor (1729).
From the porch cloister, it’s possible to access the second floor, now home to of the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art – MuDAS, the Archiepiscopal Curia and the Diocesan Historical Archives.
On the ground floor, some rooms are devoted to the Gallery of Contemporary Sacred Art, the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences and the Innocenziana Library, named after the bishop of Lecce Antonio Pignatelli, pope with the name Innocent XII.
Entering the beautiful cloister, the gaze converges at the center where, on a base of three steps, stands, elegant, a small well in Lecce stone, the work of Giuseppe Cino, likened to a refined basket of fruit. On the vera, with its peculiar oval shape, vegetable whorls alternate with water-related motifs, an obvious reminder of the well’s very function. Two small pillars from which angel heads and lush fruits and sprouts emerge support the arch decorated with festoons of fruit and cherubs. Above is a statue of St. Irene, the city’s ancient patron saint.
