Arcivescovile Castle

Strolling through the historic centre of San Pancrazio Salentino, near the church of Sant'Antonio da Padova, you will find yourself in a small square overlooked by the remains of the elegant Arcivescovile Castle, a distant echo of the town's prestigious past.
The castle dates back to 1221, at the height of the Swabian era, when the powerful Archbishop of Brindisi, Pellegrino, had it built as his personal summer residence and as a base for his pastoral visits to the surrounding area.
The building, now used as a parish rectory, shows us its most ancient history in some details of the main façade. Two great extensions in the 16th and 19th centuries, made the original structure gradually disappear among other buildings, an evolution that has left only the memory of its original splendour.
The palace, built on two floors, the ground floor and the first floor, highlights the difference between the old rooms with barrel vaults and the new ones with flat ceilings. Also the wide arches of the façade, which has now lost its original pride, reveal the different phases of the successive extensions.