The church of Santa Maria della Luce in San Matteo is a parish and a Baroque Catholic place of worship in the historic centre of Lecce, at via dei Perroni 29; it keeps a relic of Saint Matthew and the fresco of the Madonna della Luce.
What to see
The front is marked by a contrast of lines: the convex surface of the lower order alternates with the concave one of the upper order, on the model of the façade of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome by Francesco Borromini. The lower order, divided in three by two columns on tall quadrangular bases, has at the centre an unusual scale-like decoration and an elaborate portal with an aedicule topped by the coat of arms of the Franciscan Order; at the sides two niches stand out against a diamond-point background. The upper order has a Serliana and two richly decorated niches, and the sinuous line is stressed by the mixtilinear crowning cornice with a soaring finial. The interior has a single nave on an elliptical plan: between the chapels, on tall semicircular plinths, stand the twelve stone statues of the Apostles, carved in 1692 by Placido Buffelli of Alessano, and ten mullioned windows open in the nave from which the nuns followed the services. The altars, typical of the Lecce Baroque, are attributed to the school of Giuseppe Cino. On the left side follow the altars of Saint Agatha, with the Martyrdom of Saint Agatha painted in 1813 by Pasquale Grassi, of Saint Francis of Assisi, of Saint Rita of Cascia, with a papier-mâché statue by Raffaele Caretta, of the Immaculate Conception and of the Pietà, with a fine polychrome wooden statue made in Venice in 1693. The apse, with a star vault, has an exuberant high altar with small statues of saints between the columns and, at the centre, the wooden statue of Saint Matthew the Apostle, carved in 1691 by Gaetano Patalano of Ischia. On the right side are the altar with the sixteenth-century fresco of the Madonna della Luce, from the old church of Santa Maria della Luce, the altars of Saint Anne and of the Holy Family, with paintings by Serafino Elmo, between which stands a refined carved wooden pulpit flanked by four allegorical stone statues, and finally the altar of Saint Oronzo, with an altarpiece of 1736. Over the entrance door is kept the carved and gilded wooden case of the eighteenth-century organ of the basilica of Santa Croce.
The church was built in the second half of the seventeenth century to designs by Achille Larducci of Salò, according to the sources a nephew of Francesco Borromini, in place of an old fifteenth-century chapel dedicated to the apostle Matthew, to which a convent of Franciscan nuns was attached. The first stone was laid in 1667 by the bishop of Lecce Luigi Pappacoda and the building was completed in 1700. Since 30 April 1810 it has been the seat of the parish of Santa Maria della Luce, founded on 16 March 1606 in a church of the same name outside the walls and moved here after the suppression of the Franciscan nuns' monastery. The interior roof was rebuilt at the beginning of the nineteenth century in place of the old wooden ceiling.
Visiting
The church is at via dei Perroni 29, in the historic centre of Lecce. The sources consulted give no opening hours: these should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
On the right side look for the sixteenth-century fresco of the Madonna della Luce: the Virgin and Child is shown with a coral horn at the neck.
