It hardens when exposed to the elements and gradually becomes a waem golden colour. This stone is the essence of Lecce Baroque which was more concerned with decoration than with actual architecture: spiral columns, sumptuous cornices, ornate balustrades, curved pediments, vases of flowers and fruit, fluttering ribbons, putti and grotesque heads. A bizarre and endless fantasy, un paradis du rococo as a Frenchman write last century. The monument that best illustrates Lecce Baroque is the Basilica of Santa Croce which has recently been restored. The restoration work lasted almost nine years.

The friability of the stone, its high content of mineral salts and their solubility on contact with had caused fractures, pitting and deposits of lichens were eating away the building. Now that the scaffolding has been removed, the extraordinary decoration of the facade, rich in symbols, can once again be read figure like a treatise on theology. The next stop for the visitor on a tour of the opulent architecture of Lecce is the Cathedral and adjacent Seminary. However, the whole Cathedral square with its campanile and an elaborate well-which has become a symbol of Baroque Lecce-forms a large setting of remarkable unity.

Other Baroque monuments in Lecce (often also in need of restoration) are the Church of Santa Chiara with its ornate portal and elegant facade, the Church of SS Nicolo' and Cataldo, built by the Normans but completed with the addition of a Baroque facade, and the Crurch of the Theatines. But through Lecce, once you have entered the historic centre bound by city walls, is always full of surprises. You need only approach the city through the gate known as Porta Rudiae to have a foretaste of the treasures in store: it is a real triumphal arch adorned by statues of the patron saints of the city.