Gabriele Rossi
Far from the centers of Italian artistic production – not only geographically – and also absorbing influences by sea from other territories, Puglia shows particularly interesting ideas on the theme of arched vaults.
Known in the literature under the name of “volte leccesi”, these fall into the category of star vaults for the con-figuration of the surfaces that form the intrados giving rise to solutions of greater or lesser complexity. Constructed with material of easy workability, like the local travertine stone known as “tufo”, they are wide-spread in the geographic area of Salento where this stone is commonly found and, sporadically, in other parts of Puglia and Basilicata. It is a structural module – absolutely inherent to architectural expression – found in the architecture from the most important buildings to minor structures, with apparent uniformity of types and models, through an arc of time ranging from the late sixteenth century to the present day.
Keywords
volte, volte a stella, Salento.