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"Palazzo Taurino - Medieval Jewish Lecce" museum is in Lecce, in the heart of the old Jewish neighbourhood. It is a cultural center for multimedia activities and it holds the permanent exhibition "Sotto il Barocco: meeting the people in medieval Lecce".

The building, located in Lecce between Vico della Saponea and via Umberto I, is valuable for its architecture and its history. It rises in the ancient giudecca, on the site of the synagogue, converted into the church of the Annunciation (probably as early as 1495). In 1589 the merchant from Bergamo Marco Trono, who lived in the house adjoining the church, decided to expand his house to turn it into a palace. He then obtained a building with a burial chapel on the right side of the church. In 1591 the personalities appear: Marco Trono creates a three-year commercial company with Geronimo Personè and his brother Giovanni Marco. In 1592, Throne razed the church to the ground and rebuilt it from its foundations, where the synagogue had previously been. He endowed her with an altar and an icon of the Annunciation of the Virgin. In the following years the palace was sold and repurchased several times until it was inhabited by the famous musician and composer Diego Personè (1598 - 1654). The building belonged to the Cerasini, the Lubelli, the Conte and the Valentini families, before moving on to the Taurino. The current owner of the ground floor and the underground, Bruno Taurino, took care of the restorations. Today they are part of the historical itinerary "Palazzo Taurino - Medieval Jewish Lecce", which can be used by the visitor

Increasingly multicultural, multi-religious and multiracial. Lecce embraces the Israeli culture and rediscovers a piece of its history linked to that Jewish people that at the end of the Middle Ages played a central role in daily life, both in terms of number and culture and economy. The Giudecca was located where today the most beautiful monuments of Lecce stand out - Santacroce, Palazzo Adorno, Palazzo dei Celestini - with Palazzo Taurino next door, a historic site where centuries after having been brought back to life what was to have been the main synagogue in Lecce . Until recently it was a restaurant. From today it will be a museum and home to a permanent exhibition - ("Under the Baroque - Journey to the discovery of medieval Jewish Lecce") curated by Professor Fabrizio Lelli, of the University of Salento - on life and the important Jewish presence in Lecce and surroundings especially in the period from the ninth century to the Gherush (expulsion), which in Lecce lived the most dramatic and violent episodes, culminating with the progrom (devastation) of 12 March 1496.

The influence of this center concerns the whole area of Salento, to rediscover the Jewish presence and propose itineraries of history and prayer. Starting from the Palazzo Taurino, other possibilities are offered to visitors, students and religious tourism two more Jewish museums in Apulia: Museum of Memory and Hospitality - Santa Maria al Bagno Historical Jewish Museum of Trani

A study about connection between religion and tourism .