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Church of Saint Joseph

Year of construction 1729

AddressVia Carrare, 46

Coordinates40.6302622,16.938199899999972

Church

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Church of Saint Joseph

Via Carrare, 46

Exterior

The church of St. Joseph was founded in 1729 by the canon Angelo Sarapo on the remains of an older church called S. Andrea delle Chiancarelle. It is one of the last private family chapels still existing in the old part of the city.
The façade is articulated in a double order, with simple coupled pilasters culminating in an arched pediment and two pinnacles. In the second order, a mixtilinear tympanum crowns the central window.
The entrance portal has a mixtilinear tympanum and a plaque bearing the inscription “DOM / HAC QUA CERNIS / LECTOR ECCLESIAM / IN HONORE B. JOSEPHI CONSTRUCTAM / ANG.LUS SARAPO TESTAM.TO FIERI IUSSIT / ET CL. VITUS ORONTIUS GETILE SARAPO / EX SORORE NEPOS ET HERES / A FUDAMETIS EREXIT ATQ.E DOTAVIT / A.D. MDCCXXIX” and the coat of arms of the Sarapo family.

Interior

The Corinthian parastas of the single nave separate the presbytery from the space reserved for the faithful.
The presbytery is covered by a barrel vault with lunettes and friezes, while the nave by a fake dome divided into six segments and connected by four pendentives.
The altar is in carparo stone sculpted in volutes, palmettes and vegetal motifs. The altar frontal has two volutes shaped in angel heads, while on the table there is a carved and gilded wooden ciborium.
Two Corinthian columns lined with damask cloth and a broken tympanum frame the painting of the death of St. Joseph, dating back to the first half of the 18th century.
Above the two symmetrical doors on either side of the altar there are two paintings portraying on the right St. Lucy and on the left St. Apollonia, patron saints of sight and teeth.
Left of the presbytery there is a painting of St. Oronzo in bishop’s clothes blessing the city of Lecce, with the client Angelo Sarapo in the lower left corner.
On the right a painting of Our Lady of the Mount Carmel and the souls in Purgatory, signed “OPUS Vincentii Fato 1744”.
From the door on the right, a spiral stone staircase leads to the bell tower.