Restoration of the Santa Maria di Cerrate complex: public and private sectors coming together
The experience of the restoration of the architectural complex of Santa Maria di Cerrate in Lecce, completed in 2015, represents an important and constructive example of collaboration between a public institution
(Province of Lecce) and a private body (FAI-Fondo Ambiente Italiano) and under the supervision of the
Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Brindisi and Lecce. The abbey complex, later a farmhouse, was abandoned in the 1950s and then restored between 1967 and 1970 and again in 1986.
The new restoration campaign completed in 2015 recognised stratification as a fundamental aspect of the complex. The survey campaign and the studies carried out made it possible to identify, delimit and
recognise the parts of the construction, their state of conservation and their functional and historical
aspects and relationships. This made it possible to locate the restoration work to be carried out, aimed at
enhancing the value and compatible functionalization of the complex, and characterised by a strong need
to preserve the ‘signs’ left by history.
