Chiesa di San Matteo

San Matteo stands near Porta San Biagio in Lecce, its facade curving outward below and inward above. Commissioned for the Franciscan Third Order under Bishop Luigi Pappacoda, the church was built between 1667 and 1700, combining Roman Baroque forms with Lecce stone carving.

Why it matters

The church's convex lower storey and concave upper order distinguish it within Lecce's Baroque architecture. Designed by Giovanni Andrea Larducci, it unites Roman Baroque influence with the local tradition of carved stone. The church was built on the site of an earlier structure for the Franciscan Third Order and became a parish in 1812.

What to notice

The facade's lower storey projects outward, decorated with scale and diamond-point motifs, while the upper order recedes. The Franciscan emblem above the portal shows the crossed arms of Christ and Saint Francis. Inside, the pseudo-elliptical nave contains nine chapels, with twelve stone apostle statues by Placido Buffelli set outside their niches.

The high altar is attributed to Giuseppe Cino and frames a wooden statue of Saint Matthew carved in 1691 by Gaetano Patalano. Another altar preserves a fragment of a circa-1400 fresco showing the nursing Madonna, associated with the former church of Santa Maria della Luce. The organ, built in 1735 by Carlo Sanarica for Santa Croce, was installed in the cathedral before being moved to San Matteo after 1910.

Context and history

The Franciscan Third Order established a convent here around a fifteenth-century chapel dedicated to Saint Matthew. Bishop Luigi Pappacoda commissioned the present church, whose construction began in 1667 and was completed in 1700. The convent community left in 1812, when the church became a parish and the former convent rooms passed to educational use. Its dedication also preserves the title of Santa Maria della Luce, whose demolished church is recalled in the surviving fresco fragment.