Here, too, an underground church at its origins, St Michael Archangel. Tradition makes it the cradle of Christianity in this city, and the saint the object of devout worship in the city and the countryside.

It's said, by ancient fame, that St Peter himself came to this crypt to celebrate and preach.

On this underground church, the bell tower was built in 1722, followed by the construction of the new church. All based on drawings by the leading Salento architect of the first half of the 18th century, Mauro Manieri, who was also a sculptor, painter, engraver and goldsmith, as well as the author of famous buildings such as the façade of Taranto cathedral and the Alcantarine church in Lecce.

It's precisely in the façade of St. Leonard's, with its two orders, Ionic and Corinthian, that one can see the Baroque correction made by Manieri: his way of combining classical forms with the fantasies of silhouettes and ornamentation. And then the curved half-arches of a gable, just begun to allow the window of the upper order, and its pediment, the space and light they deserve.

In contrast, the interior tends to expand by virtue of the single Corinthian order and the relief of the cornices and entrance arches to the side chapels. But the masterpiece is the ceiling that combines the agile, undulating crosses with the soft, elegant luminosity of the stuccoes.

Everything is precious here, in the church of the Benedictine nuns' monastery of the nobility and upper middle class: from the majolica floor tiles under the high altar to the choir stalls on the arches of the chapels, fitted with the gratings, behind which the cloistered nuns attended the sacred services. Outside, in the niches of the bell tower, the patron saints of the Benedictine order: St Benedict and St Scholastica, statues with wavy bodies in which the style of Manieri and his workshop can be recognised.

The church is annexed to the former The link takes you to the list of events in the city Benedictine Monastery, of 16th-century origin; confiscated by the State after the Unification of Italy, it was home to a number of schools and currently has no use.

Source: Giacomo Campanelli, Monopoli tourist guide, Schena publisher.

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