Chiesa di Santa Chiara

It astonishes and enchants anyone who unexpectedly comes across the Church of Santa Chiara in Lecce, one of the city’s most celebrated churches, recently restored, rising behind Piazza Sant’Oronzo on Piazzetta Vittorio Emanuele.\n\nBuilt in 1429 by order of the then Bishop of Lecce, Tommaso Ammirato, the Church of Santa Chiara, probably the work of Larducci or Giuseppe Cino, was never completed, yet it imposes itself on the viewer through its compositional grandeur.\n\nA stone staircase leads to the façade, divided into four sections by Corinthian pilasters and dominated by the lavish main portal bearing the coat of arms of the Seraphic Order, flanked by empty lateral edicules adorned only at the top by medallions.\n\nWith an octagonal plan, the interior consists of a nave with three chapels on each side, a luminous presbytery, and arches surmounted by grates behind which the nuns attended mass. The church preserves an 18th-century organ, altars dating back to the 17th century, and numerous works of art, including a painting by Francesco Solimena depicting Saint Agnes.