2019 Essays

Church of San Nicola Vescovo, Corigliano D'Otranto, Lecce

Navarro Morales, Maria Elisa

Little is known of the construction of San Nicola Vescovo, the main church at Corigliano D'Otranto in Lecce. We know the church was finished in 1573, as this date is inscribed on its portal seemingly by architect and sculptor Gabriele Licciardi. The church appears as a simple block of local stone flanked to the right by a tower that was originally part of the city wall and served as an observation tower. The façade’s main features are the portal over the door and a circular window on top, both richly carved. The plan of the church is a Latin cross, with a nave, two side aisles, and short transepts. Each pillar along the nave is made of four Ionic columns, the barrel vault above it springs from carved corbels. A figure in one of the corbels can be identified as an architect by the characteristic three-pointed hat carved on it. Since this corbel has also been attributed to Licciardi, we can presume that Licciardi, of whom we know very little, was involved at least in the last stages of the construction of the church at Corigliano.