40.35° N · 18.17° E · Salento
Lecce is the great Baroque of southern Italy, carved in a pale, soft stone. With a single ticket you enter its five main monuments, from the Santa Croce facade to the Old Seminary cloister.
Part of Salento
Who offers it
Independent companies: you book with them, on their terms. Prices are as they publish them and may change.
Lecce is the city of the Baroque in southern Italy. Its churches are carved in Lecce stone, a pale, soft limestone that could be worked almost like wood, and which turns golden at sunset. The LeccEcclesiae ticket opens for you, in a single route, the five jewels of that Baroque, a few minutes' walk from each other.
The Duomo's bell tower is not included: with the full ticket, at €21, you also go up by lift to its balconies at 43 metres (see the bell tower climb).
The ticket costs €11; ages 12 to 17, €5; and there is a family ticket for €24 for two adults and their children aged 12 to 17. It is valid for 15 days and allows one entry to each monument, so you can see Santa Croce one day and the Duomo another.
The monuments are open every day: from 9:00 to 18:00 in the winter period and from 9:00 to 21:00 in the summer. Entry is until 15 minutes before closing. During Mass there is no visiting: the website publishes the calendar of services.
Buy on the LeccEcclesiae website or at the ticket offices in Piazza del Duomo, inside the Old Seminary, and at Santa Croce.
Start at Santa Croce, first thing, when the light hits the facade from the side and there are fewer groups. Cross Piazza Sant'Oronzo and continue to Piazza del Duomo: in about ten minutes on foot you are at the second monument. Leave San Matteo and Santa Chiara for the end, on the way to Piazza Sant'Oronzo and the amphitheatre. Taking your time, allow two and a half hours.
On Friday evenings, I Misteri di Santa Croce opens the basilica in the dark for 30 people, with light, music and access to the rose window balcony: one hour, €20, or €12 if you already have the LeccEcclesiae ticket.
Map
What you have around the starting point.
More to do
Itineraries
Tips
By mid-morning the groups arrive and the square fills up.
The facades change colour in the low light. You do not need a ticket to see them from outside.
During services there is no visiting; the website publishes them by day.
Questions
You enter with the LeccEcclesiae ticket, at €11, which also includes the Duomo and three other monuments.
Yes, in two or three hours. The ticket is valid for 15 days if you prefer to spread it out.
Yes, every day, except during Mass.
Ages 12 to 17 pay €5; there is a family ticket for €24.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/apulia/salento/things-to-do/lecce-baroque-leccecclesiae
