Caricamento...
The restoration
Every stone in its place
An abandoned historic palazzo, brought back to life with philological rigour and contemporary sensibility. Nothing was demolished. Everything was rediscovered.
The story
From abandonment to dwelling
Palazzetto Vico San Marco was found in a state of complete abandonment. Ancient vaults hidden under layers of modern plaster. Lecce stone floors covered over. Original structures concealed by past interventions that had erased its identity.
The choice was clear from the start: conservation restoration, not renovation. Every recoverable original element was preserved. Every new intervention was designed to serve the existing structure, not to replace it.
The vaults
Hidden beneath the plaster
The most extraordinary discovery. Beneath layers of modern plaster lay star vaults of rare beauty — an architectural typology that few palazzi in Salento still preserve. Bringing them to light was a work of patience and expertise.
Today the vaults are the dominant element of the spaces. Nothing needed to be added: it was enough to remove what was hiding them.
The materials
Stone, wood, iron. Nothing new.
The ancient fireplace, the stone stairs, the wrought-iron gates, the solid wood doors: everything that could be recovered was restored and put back into use. The few new additions — the bathrooms, the kitchen, the utilities — were made with consistent materials by local artisans.
The carparo stone for the walls was cut from the same quarry that supplied stone to the original builders. The iron was forged in Collepasso. The wood crafted in a carpentry workshop in Parabita.
The exterior
The terrace rediscovered
The panoramic terrace — overlooking the Chiesa Madre and the rooftops of the historic centre — was inaccessible and in a state of decay.
Today it is the heart of the La Terrazza apartment: furnished with care, with an outdoor copper shower and a view that on clear days reaches the sea at Gallipoli.
The method
Conserve, don't transform
The project was led by INCIDE Engineering — an engineering and architecture firm founded by Gianluca — with one guiding principle: every intervention must serve the original structure, never the other way around.
Modern technologies are present but invisible: underfloor systems, LED lighting integrated into the stone stairs, silent air conditioning. Nothing that alters the perception of the historic space.
The result is not a renovated palazzo. It is a palazzo rediscovered.
See the result
Come and see for yourselves
Photographs tell only part of the story. To truly feel what it means to live in a restored historic palazzo, you have to experience it.