Padri Carmelitani Convent - Presicce (LE)

The monastery of the Carmelites, adjacent to the church of the Carmine, is a Baroque building of Lecce, built at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for the Carmelite Fathers, who arrived in the city in 1481. The rooms of the Convent are organized around a quadrangular cloister, whose interior elevations show the signs of nineteenth-century interventions.

On the ground floor there are round arches set on smooth pillars, while on the first floor, along the sides that border the church there is a loggia. The portico is covered with cross vaults, whose keystones and corbels are often decorated, while some lunettes are frescoed. On the ground floor there is an interesting environment with a pavilion vault frescoed with grotesque motifs and scenes from the life of the prophet Elijah and portraits of Carmelite saints.

The community was suppressed in 1807 and from 1813 the monastery was used as a barracks. In this century there were many interventions, including the demolition of several buildings. After a careful restoration, the Convent became the seat of the Rectorate of the University of Salento.

The planned interventions concerned the energy efficiency of buildings and utilities for public or public energy use and interventions on heat distribution networks, in particular from cogeneration and for district heating and cooling.