San Giovanni Battista, Contemporary church in Stadio district, Lecce, Italy

San Giovanni Battista is a contemporary church in Lecce's Stadio district, built from 2000 to 2006 to designs by Franco Purini, Laura Thermes and Adriano Cornoldi. Its rectangular body covers about 800 square metres, with a facade in Apricena stone and a cubic vestibule clad in Lecce stone. The asymmetric cross and a 27-metre bell tower with 126 steps mark the exterior, while Mimmo Paladino's terracotta portal depicts shoes, bowls, shells and fish.

The parish was transferred from the old 17th-century church in the historic centre to the Stadio district by archbishop Michele Mincuzzi on 4 September 1982. After temporary premises and an oratory, construction of the new church began on 23 October 2000 to a design by Franco Purini and Laura Thermes. Archbishop Cosmo Francesco Ruppi consecrated it on 24 June 2006.

The name honors John the Baptist, the church's patron saint. Visitors can observe side chapels and altars that reflect the community's prayer life, showing how the space serves different devotional purposes.

The church stands in the Stadio district on the city's edge, with its entrance facing a forecourt paved in Apricena stone. The isolated bell tower rises 27.3 metres and a 126-step staircase leads to two bells at its top. The parish complex also includes an hortus conclusus behind the church, planted with trees and medicinal herbs of the Salento.

Instead of a planned dome, wooden trusses cover the octagonal central area, an unexpected architectural solution for this layout. This choice reveals how practical constraints during the long construction period altered the original design.