PIAZZA SANT'ORONZO
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A square with heterogeneous styles located in the heart of the city of Lecce
Piazza Sant'Oronzo, the heart of the city, is very lively in the evenings and is named after Oronzo de Lecce, the patron saint of the city. His bronze sculpture watches over the square from the top of a 29-metre Roman column brought from the port of Brindisi where it marked the end of the Via Appia. The other Roman monument that characterizes the square is the amphitheatre, of which only a third of the total perimeter has been cleared, the remaining two thirds being buried under various buildings, among which the church of Santa Maria della Grazia with its beautiful Baroque façade. Opposite the Column of Oronzo is the Palazzo del Sedile, which houses the tourist information point, and the adjacent small church of San Marco. Finally, the square is bordered by buildings from various periods, including the rationalist architecture of the Fascist period.
The current layout of the square is quite recent: for centuries the old Piazza dei Mercanti ("Merchants' Square") was open where today you can admire the remains of the amphitheatre. The area to the north of Palazzo del Sedile and the Column of Oronzo was a popular area occupied by the shops and dwellings of Venetian merchants. The discovery of the Roman amphitheatre upset the conformation of the square: fascinated by the Roman Empire, Mussolini encouraged the excavation of the remains. The old Venetian quarter was razed to the ground in order to open up the present square, the pavement of which is marked, in the centre, by the coat of arms of the city of Lecce.
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