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Ex Convento degli Agostiniani

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The former Convent of the Augustinian Friars is an architectural complex in Lecce, founded in the mid-17th century and today a major cultural center of the capital of the Salento region.

The former Convent of the Augustinian Friars is a religious complex that also includes the Church of St. Mary of Ognibene-originally dedicated to the Crowned Virgin-and a beautiful garden, which was founded on April 18, 1649 in an area donated by the University to the friars of the Augustinian order, who settled there for more than two centuries until the suppression of the order. By then suppressed, the  Augustinian order was replaced by the order of the Franciscan Friars Minor of the Observance, who named the church and convent after St. Anthony and founded a school of philosophy there.

For no particular reason, the church was later deconsecrated to become first a town warehouse, then a military tailor shop until the 1960s, and now a prestigious cultural center.

The entire architectural complex was restored and opened to the public in May 2017 after a conservative restoration work of the outside spaces and of the Giardino di Ogni Bene, which is a productive garden with a fruit orchard containing native and typical tree species of the agricultural landscape of the Salento region (oaks, cypresses, and fruit plants) and ornamental orchards with aromatic and flowering perennial herbaceous plants.

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