Casa Soleto is a hospitality project located near the rural town of Soleto, in Puglia, Italy. Studio Andrew Trotter and Marcelo Martínez have restored a seventeenth-century house, aiming to create an atmosphere defined by the preservation of its historic features and memories, expressed through the curated design of its spaces.
The Story by Andrew Trotter
The house was charming. The street front had all the baroque details of a small palazzo, and inside it was like time stood still. The rooms with high vaulted ceilings were full of furniture, books, clothes and old photos of the family. The house hadn’t been lived in for over 20 years but felt like all it needed was a bit of love and we could move right in. But we were wrong.
Because of the pandemic, it took us over seven months just to buy the house. And then another five months to start work. Once we started to clean up the house, we realised there were more problems than we thought. The ceiling of one of the bedrooms and bathroom needed to be replaced. Most of the lower walls had concrete plaster which held all the damp within the walls. The sewerage basically was a hole in the back garden, and there was only one bathroom for the whole house. We had work to do.
Parts of the house were over 400 years old.
The room behind the kitchen would have been a chapel back in the days, so the family didn’t need to leave the house to pray.
The house is quite a labyrinth, and you need to go into the front patio and up the outside staircase to reach the bedrooms.
But this is the charm of the old houses, with not one straight wall in sight.
Casa Soleto
Casa Soleto offers a truly authentic experience of “the village life” in the heart of Salento, Puglia.
The noble palazzotto has been lovingly restored by Studio Andrew Trotter and Marcelo Martínez. They took time with the renovation to carefully preserve the historic features of the house, while bringing it into the twenty-first century.
Having kept most of the original floors, the nonna’s kitchen or the internal doors (two of them being three hundred years old), Casa Soleto has all the charm and character you would expect of a house from the seventeenth century.
This is a truly authentic experience. A haven to relax during your trip. A barefoot luxury.
The House
From the gate you enter the house through a courtyard, which is the perfect spot to have breakfast and dinner as it has no direct sun. From that courtyard you will find the main living room and a fully equipped kitchen with everything you need to prepare a nice meal.
Behind the kitchen you will discover what once was the old chapel, which has been turned into a media room, with a 4 meter sofa (that can also be turned into two single beds for extra guests). This room has its own powder room and outdoor shower.
Connected to the living room you will discover the majestic dining room with another powder room and, on the opposite side, the garden room with a 3 meter sofa, the perfect place to relax and read a book. Outside there is a garden with a 3×2 meter plunge pool, to take the sun or cool off during hot days.
Most of the ceilings on the ground floor are around 5 meters high.
The upper floor is reached using the staircase in the entry courtyard.
To the right side of the staircase you enter into the green room, which leads you to the bedroom overlooking the street and the church, with its own en-suite and walk-in wardrobe.
On the other side of the green room there is the large master bedroom with a terrace overlooking the garden, and a large bathroom with an old cast iron clawfoot bath.
To the left side of the staircase you enter another large bedroom, through to its own small living room with a sofa that doubles as a single bed, perfect for a child. There is a large tiled bathroom behind.
Soleto and the area
Soleto is a special place. Very small and in the heart of the Salento area in Puglia. Only 20 minutes away from the baroque historic town of Lecce and just 5 minutes from its smaller cousin Galatina.
The towns feel like they have been lost in time, like a set from an old movie.
The kids still play in the streets, the old men debate on the stairs, the grandmas make pasta. The area is known for its fantastic food, great coffee and pasticciotti (small cream filled cakes). This is not the place for a diet.
Soleto is one of the towns of the Grecìa salentina where a few of the old folks still speak Griko, the local language. The small chapel of Santo Stefano is the centre, built in 1347, and like its larger sister in Galatina, it is full of frescoes in the style of Giotto.
The Soleto Map, which depicts the south of Puglia on a piece of terracotta, was discovered in 2003. It is thought to be one of the oldest maps in Europe, if not the world.
Being in the heart of Salento, and surrounded by beautiful baroque villages and great restaurants, Soleto is directly half-way between the two seas, with only 25 minutes drive to each. The calm waters of Gallipoli and, to the south, what they call the Maldives of Italy. There the cliffs of the Adriatic are more dramatic, with secluded coves and the Grotta de Poesia.
Most of the artwork was in the house when we purchased it, except for 3 beautiful paintings that were made specifically for the house by a good friend of ours, the young artist from Antwerp Eleanor Herbosch. For the commission she was sent three bags of soil, all of them taken from underneath different rooms of the house, which she used to create the pieces. We also received two pieces by the artists Lucas Morten from Sweden.
Facts & Credits
Title Casa Soleto
Typology Architecture, Restoration
Location Soleto, Puglia, Italy
Status Completed
Interior Design Studio Andrew Trotter and Marcelo Martínez
Photography Salva López
Text by the authors
Take a look at another recent project by Studio Andrew Trotter ‘1OAM apotheke’ in Antiparos, here!
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