7 bedrooms historic house, 350 m²

Vernole, Lecce (province)

Salento

Inside the walls of Acaya, the only intact Renaissance fortified town in Southern Italy, 10 km from Lecce and 10 minutes from the Adriatic sea, a free-standing historic building on three levels, on a plot of about 1,030 sqm that runs right through the block from one street to the other.

Condition: an unfinished building site. We say it in the first line because it is what you see on a viewing. Works began and stopped: no floors, no finished services, no windows, and the nine bathrooms exist only on the drawings. There is rising damp in the cellar and a few localised cracks in the masonry to be consolidated. If you are looking for a move-in-ready home, this is not it. If you are looking for a place that does not exist anywhere else, to finish in your own way, it is.

The character. Lecce-stone vaults over almost the whole ground floor, barrel, star and cloister vaults, with ceiling heights of 4.42 to 4.87 metres as measured on the approved drawings. Original stone floor in the entrance hall, with reclaimed slabs stored on site for the rest of the house. Two stone fireplaces, one of them monumental. A private inner courtyard with three round arches, enclosed by high walls. A garden of about 500 sqm with mature lemon and orange trees in fruit and a historic stone pergola. On the first floor a terrace of about 40 sqm plus flat roofs, with a close-up view of the castle, the ramparts, the town gate and the clock tower. A barrel-vaulted cellar of 38 sqm. Period pieces remain in place: large terracotta jars, monolithic stone basins, the original wooden street door.

The approved project. About 350 sqm of net internal area. The Municipality has approved a project for hospitality use: 5 guest bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, 2 apartments, a 28 sqm reception hall, an office, 9 bathrooms in total. The historic street facades are unchanged. The same layout reads naturally as a family home with independent guest quarters.

Planning. Building permit no. 10/19/9436 of 2019, a variant of permit no. 47/18/9391 of 2018, granted for hospitality use: the project is approved by the Municipality. To resume the works a certified notification (Scia) filed by a qualified technician is sufficient, since the remaining works are internal and the facades are unchanged. Conversion back to residential use is for the buyer to verify with their own technician; all permit drawings are available.

The place. Acaya was fortified in 1535 by Gian Giacomo dell'Acaya, military architect to Emperor Charles V: castle, ramparts, three bastions and moat are intact, and the streets inside the walls are pedestrian. Lecce, the baroque capital of the Salento, is 10 km away. The beaches of San Foca and Torre dell'Orso are 10 minutes by car, the WWF nature reserve of Le Cesine a few kilometres. Just outside the walls, the DoubleTree by Hilton Acaya Golf Resort with its 18-hole course and spa. Brindisi airport about 58 km.

An unfinished shell without finishes or services: no energy certificate required. Areas are taken from the approved drawings; figures marked "about" are estimates to be confirmed by survey. A full dossier with plans, permit drawings and photographs is available on request. Private sale.