Ezechiele Leandro: outsider artist and his Santuario della Pazienza

Ezechiele Leandro (Lequile, 1905 – San Cesario di Lecce, 1981) was an Italian outsider artist who built the Santuario della Pazienza, a monumental Art Brut complex in Salento. Born to unknown parents, he worked as a shepherd until age eleven, was recognized by Giovanna Ciurlia, and placed in a convent until 1921. After military service, he settled in San Cesario di Lecce, married, and had four children. Economic hardship led him to work as a miner in Africa and Germany. In 1946 he opened a bicycle repair shop, later worked as a cement worker and scrap dealer. He built his own house, which became a museum-laboratory with mosaic and sculpture walls depicting biblical scenes from recycled materials. Despite local scorn, he began exhibiting nationally and internationally in the early 1970s. His masterpiece, the Santuario della Pazienza, is a 700-square-meter complex of 200 works representing the Apocalypse, Passion of Christ, and Last Judgment, built from tiles, metal fragments, and mortar. Inaugurated in 1975, it has been compared to Gaudí's Parc Güell and the Palagonia villa monsters. Since 2014, the house-museum has been under cultural heritage protection. The most recent retrospective, "Leandro unico primitivo," curated by Antonella Di Marzo, Lorenzo Madaro, Brizia Minerva, and Tina Piccolo, was held in 2016 across San Cesario, Lecce, and Bitonto.