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The church of San Domenico
Also known as the Convent of the dominicans. National Monument,
by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, one of the greatest examples of Baroque in the far Salento.
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Built by the Order of the Preachers Fathers in 1688, on the ruins of the previous convent temple, the Dominican church represents one of the greatest examples of the Baroque in the extreme Salento.
The Dominican Order settlement in Tricase was commissioned by Frà Nicolò Paglia of Giovinazzo, a companion of San Domenico and was one of the first in Puglia. The church, strategically built close to the city walls, has been enriched over the years by the constant donations of the faithful, returned to us in the form of works of art. The theatrical installation of the bright façade goes back to the style of Giuseppe Zimbalo, who in Terra d’Otranto often worked with the Dominicans. The two side wings decorated with stuccos made in 1769, flank the central body which in addition to the large "lyre" window houses the portal in Lecce stone, on whose top there are the busts of the Saints. Pietro and Paolo, owners of the Convent, and the niche with the statue of San Domenico da Guzman, founder of the Order.
The doors of the main door and the side entrance are the originals from the 1700s, inlaid by Oronzo Pirti. At the top of the facade, statues alternating with plumes push the structure upwards. The interior is a manifesto of the Salento Baroque. The rectangular nave is surmounted by a wooden ceiling painted with octagonal lacunars alternating with lozenges, animated by plant motifs. Nine deep side chapels host the same number of altars that tell the story of the church between columns, gables and frontals. The ten polychrome statues placed on the pillars between the chapels catch the eye, in the complete equilibrium of the structure, among which the one of San Ludovico Bertrando that with one hand holds the ciborium and with the other the crucifix stuck in the barrel of one gun. Among the altars, the one of the Annunciation stands out for its elegance, for the fineness of carving that of St. Thomas Aquinas with the seventeenth-century painting of the "Virgin of the Rosary", and for sumptuousness that of the Name of Jesus with its imposing altarpiece altar of the "Circumcision of Christ" by Gian Domenico Catalano, and that of San Domenico, with the canvas of the "Miracolo di Soriano" and wooden busts of saints alternating with works in plaster and terracotta. The wooden pulpit around a fresco depicting St. Thomas is also of exquisite workmanship.
Behind the high altar, clad in polychrome marble in 1762, its baroque shape can be seen before dismantling and cladding. The rectangular apse contains the wooden choir carved in walnut by the master Oronzo Pirti in 1703, dominated by a large canvas of the "Virgin of the Rosary" attributed to the Catalan brush. Important examples of papier-mâché from Lecce are the two eighteenth-century statues of San Domenico and of the Madonna Addolorata, placed in jambs on the sides of the triumphal arch.
On the right rear side of the church the elegant bell tower set on two orders, is closed by a spire decorated with polychrome ceramic spheres. Behind the complex of the convent of Saints Peter and Paul, today it is a branch of some municipal offices.
