Pinacoteca "R. Caracciolo", Religious art museum in Lecce, Italy
The Pinacoteca "R. Caracciolo" is a religious and baroque art museum housed in a 16th-century building on Via Imperatore Adriano in Lecce, known as Palazzo Della Monica and formerly the seat of the Provincial Curia of the Franciscan Friars. The collection brings together paintings and sacred art objects, mostly dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, gathered from Franciscan convents across the Salento region.
The museum was founded in the 1960s on the initiative of Franciscan friar Egidio De Tommaso, who wanted to save artworks from Salento's convents that were at risk of being lost. Since 1964, the collection has been housed in the rooms of Palazzo Della Monica.
Many of the paintings on display come from Franciscan convents across the Salento region and show sacred figures and religious scenes from the 16th and 17th centuries. Alongside the paintings, the museum holds objects of sacred art such as reliquaries, crucifixes and wooden sculptures that show how faith was practiced in daily life.
A visit is only possible with a prior reservation, so it is worth checking the official website and booking in advance. Comfortable shoes are a good idea since the building has old rooms and passageways to walk through.
This is the only institution in Europe that holds such a large group of baroque and Counter-Reformation works of Franciscan origin. Many of these paintings would have disappeared had De Tommaso not retrieved them before the convents were abandoned.
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