Palazzo Vernazza-Castromediano – named after the noble families who built it – is one of the oldest in Lecce (15th-16th century AD). There are no documented sources other than the exact year of construction or the names of the designers, as per most of the civil buildings of the Lecce Renaissance, but the watchtower (also called the Torre Signorile) dates back to the late fifteenth century. The Tower, about 20 meters high and spread over three floors, is the original nucleus of the building which over the centuries became what is one of the greatest examples of a fortified Lecce house ever developed, characterised by a refined elegance that still catches the eye of those who enter the courtyard after passing through the arch at number 8, of this small lane called Vico Vernazza.

Overlooking Piazza Pellegrino, the monumental complex is characterised by a modest façade in Lecce stone, dominated by the original articulation of the windows (straight and arched) and doors, adorned with precious decorative and architectural elements.  These features, dating back to different eras, tell the long history of this building which has been gradually expanded and enriched by the various noble families who have inhabited it over the centuries, until it was abandoned in the early 1970s.  Thanks to an important renovation over a period of seven years from 2011 and financed by the state as part of the Lecce Baroque law, this splendid space was returned to the community.

As part of the “Underground Lecce” project, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Sanctuary dedicated to the Goddess Isis and Serapis (1st century BC – 1st century AD) with the adjoining Purgatorium, the ritual basin in which devotees immersed themselves to obtain a symbolic baptism “with the waters of the Nile” for the purification of the body and spirit, before entering the sacred mysteries.

The discovery is of great importance: in southern Italy there are only two temples dedicated to the Isiac cult – in Pompeii and Benevento – and the presence of this sanctuary had only previously been hypothesised on the basis of some documents that referred to merchants who went to the ancient Lupiae – modern day Lecce – to bring a gift to the oriental divinity, also revered by the Romans after the conquest of Egypt.

In fact, among the various valuable artifacts found during the stratigraphic excavation in the basement of Palazzo Vernazza is a large marble basin with a dedication by the merchant Tito Memmio Cinyps Tiberino – the same as the inscription found in the 19th century in the adjacent Church of San Matteo – which certifies that it was he, this rich Messapian merchant, who built the sanctuary. Among the most important artifacts there is also an oscillum (a votive disc hung between columns) depicting Isis and Anubis, a sistrum (the instrument of Isis, Goddess of fertility, rebirth and the arts), a situla and a statue from the Augustan age depicting Aphrodite, similar to the Egyptian goddess.