The Minor Basilica of the Holy Cross in Lecce has a whole century of history to tell – a century during which Baroque art flourished and triumphed on the pediment of this beautiful church, essentially built in two separate phases, one in the late 1500s and one in the 1600s.

Indeed the church of the Celestine congregation (established in 1248 by hermit Pietro da Morrone, who would later become Pope Celestine V) dates back to 1549; the lower part of the façade was finished in 1582 and the interior was completed in 1590: this was the 16th-century phase, directed by Salentine architect Gabriele Riccardi.