Between Manduria and Francavilla Fontana, in the tranquility of the Salento countryside, the Pietro Guida House Museum and Archive preserves the creative soul of the Neapolitan artist and first professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Lecce, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 103. A creative genius with a gentle gaze, capable of transforming matter into story and poetry.
Crossing the threshold of the house means entering his mind. The twentieth-century residence is a work within a work. Drawings, engravings, and sketches inhabit the walls; sculptures emerge everywhere: along the stairs, on the balustrade, on terraces, in the courtyard, and in the Mediterranean garden. A bourgeois couple, the woman in red smoking while slumped in a chair, two lovers kissing, an upside-down angel. Then abstract-constructivist forms born from bricks, pipes, iron, and steel: industrial material turned into poetry.
The library houses a rich book collection: art volumes, works by Neapolitan authors, and French literature. In the bedroom, ex-votos, religious paintings, and saintly bells tell of intimate devotion. Descending into the studio, among instruments still in place, busts and bas-reliefs, one breathes in the heart of creation. Outside, in the garden, a violinist under a tree and silent figures watch over the house.
Visiting the House Museum means traversing more than a century of life and research of an artist who reinvented sculpture while remaining true to his vision.
By appointment: +39 333 424 4409
