Identity: an inland city with five Adriatic seaside districts and the Rauccio wood
Lecce's centre lies inland, but the municipal territory reaches the Adriatic with five seaside districts (marine): San Cataldo, Frigole, Torre Chianca, Spiaggiabella and Torre Rinalda. North of the city the Bosco e Paludi di Rauccio regional park preserves one of the last patches of the old holm-oak forest of the coast.
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The five seaside districts
The municipality lists five marine: San Cataldo, Frigole, Torre Chianca, Spiaggiabella and Torre Rinalda. San Cataldo, about 10 km east of the city, has a lighthouse and a marina and has always been called «the sea of the people of Lecce»; the municipality recalls that the first harbour was built by Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. Frigole, about 15 km away, has a mostly sandy shore and, nearby, the Acquatina basin, an artificial lagoon-like body of water.
Bosco e Paludi di Rauccio
The «Bosco e Paludi di Rauccio» regional nature park covers about 1,600 hectares along the Adriatic coast north of Lecce. The wood, about 18 hectares, is one of the last remnants of the old holm-oak (Quercus ilex) forest that covered the coastal strip from the border with the province of Brindisi to Otranto: it survived because it stands on a bank of calcarenite rock that could not be farmed. The park includes the Masseria di Rauccio, a mid-16th-century farmstead.
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Sources
Updated: 2026-10-22
Updated: 2026-10-22
Updated: 2026-10-22
Updated: 2026-10-22
Reviewed: 10/23/2026 · by piero.avolio · rev. 1 · Period: → 2027-10-31
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