Address: Piazza Municipio, 5 | Map
Telephone: +39 0833 519515
The first historical document attesting to the presence of Matino as a center permanently occupied dates back to 1099.
Matino carries a unique charm, is one of the few towns in the province of Lecce to have preserved, almost intact, its characteristics: narrow, winding, narrow streets adorned with votive niches, courtyards still equipped with "pile" for washing clothes, from the balconies and baroque palaces. And it is in the ancient village you can admire the most valuable real estate and most historical and architectural value.
First of all, and only one of its kind in the territory, the Palace of the Marquis Del Tufo (one of the first lords of Matino), owned by the city. Built on the ruins of an ancient fortification, around the sixteenth century, overlooking the central Piazza San Giorgio with a three-light window balustrade. Inside the palace is open forty rooms built on a series of cave dug into the tuff (the latter recently restored and can be visited today), a roof garden, a green area and beautiful frescoed walls with stables and mangers with written report names of horses. This testifies to the love and passion of the Marquis Del Tufo to breed horses.
The oldest monument is the ancient Mother Church, dedicated to St. George, in the XVI century. A large and elegant building, with a single nave in the Latin cross, which affects the wealth of the eight altars in faux marble, finely decorated in Baroque style. Of great interest is the cultural celebration of the patron saint St. George is honored on April 23. For the occasion, the square and the streets of the town are decorated with impressive illuminations that emphasize the popular passion.
Prehistoric finds have been unearthed in the area where he insists the crypt of St. Ermete on the ridge of the homonymous Serra. There were also settlements Basilian in the S. Eleuterio and St. Anastasia.
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