The Basilica di Santa Croce is Lecce’s wonderful basilica decorated in the best of the city’s brand of Baroque termed ‘barocco leccese’. Locally quarried stone lends itself to carving being malleable but yet retaining their shape. The top part of the façade is flamboyant and is the work of Antonio Zimbalo, who was called Zingarello (gypsy). It was decorated from the 16th to 17th centuries, and its upper levels are adorned with so many statues, figurines and curlicues it’s difficult to take in all at once.
