Doors and Door Knockers in Lecce

I’ve just returned from a few days in few days in Lecce, in the Salento region of Apulia in the heel of Italy. Lecce is sometimes referred to as the Florence of the South, connoting the abundance of visual splendour in the historic centre. However the reality is more complex; Lecce’s incredibly ornate Baroque churches coexist with the wear and tear of everyday urban architecture.

This post focusses on some of the architectural detail that caught my eye with specific reference to doors and door knockers.

This elaborate doorway contains doors within its doors:

A fancy entrance – I like the caryatid-like figures that lean in to echo the curve of the arched door:

In the above picture you can just make out the solid door knockers which have representations of lions heads.  In the next picture all the “door furniture” has long been removed, and the cat can hang out in peace:

The next photograph contains a handwritten sign which states that surveillance cameras are filming you (literally “taking your eye”). Words and images have been scribbled in the dust of the glass door panes; I can make out the words tutti insieme meaning everyone together:

The following images feature hand door knockers which I was drawn to partly for their associations with the Hand of Fatima and Hamsa amulets.

Brass hand door knocker in Lecce against a blue-green door:

Elaborate hand door knocker with pronounced ring on ring finger:

A more worn door knocker, the ring just detectable:

Double doors with double hands:

 

 

Click here to see my piece on the representation of hands in graffiti.

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