PORTFOLIOS > THE ITALIAN PRESEPE - Cultural Landscapes of the Soul

Lecce, Baroque Jewel of the South

Lecce, surrounded by groves of millenary olive trees, is part of the oldest arboreal landscape in the world. Lecce’s presepe, built by the Cultural Works Department in 2013, is set within a 2nd century Roman amphitheater, but the archaic agricultural landscape of olive trees and dry stonework created for the nativity dates to the 8th century B.C. when the area was a Greek colony.