Secondary school
For students in lower and upper secondary schools, the Archive becomes a space for investigation, dialogue and discovery.
The educational pathways offer an active approach to history and memory: from writing to urban transformations, from cartography to archival research. Each workshop encourages critical thinking and creativity.
Students will take part in experiences that combine study, observation and play. Every activity is preceded by a guided tour of the Archive, designed to open the doors of the past to the generations who will write the future.
Writing to Remember: from stone to paper
From prehistoric pictograms and ideograms to the most recent forms of writing, this workshop traces the history of the alphabet and the evolution of written language across the ages, supported by the reading of archival documents.
In the practical session, students will experiment with writing using nib and inkwell, movable type and composing stick, typewriter and digital devices.
From the Archive to the City (Part 1)
Educational workshop in two sessions
The first session focuses on the study and exploration of cartography preserved in the Municipal Historical Archive. Students are introduced to the history of the city, from the earliest graphic representations to its urban evolution across the centuries, including architectural landmarks. Through the use of historical maps, they will discover how Lecce has changed in terms of housing development and urban identity — especially its expansion beyond the ancient city walls — with attention also to the areas most familiar to them (such as the Convitto area, Piazza Mazzini, and more).
From the Archive to the City (Part 2)
Educational workshop in two sessions
The second session takes place outdoors. Equipped with copies of the maps studied in the Archive and with a camera, students take part in a real “hunt for places”. They compare the present state of the city with the documentary layers analysed in the Archive, marking updates and differences directly onto the reproduced maps and plans.
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From the Archive to the City (additional focuses)
Educational workshops across multiple sessions
1) The Villa Comunale: a journey among trees, statues and hidden stories
Through archival documents — ancient maps, plans, correspondence and original drawings — students will rediscover the history of Lecce’s Villa Comunale, one of the city’s most beloved places. But the journey doesn’t stop there: it continues along its tree-lined avenues, turning the visit into a team game. A fun challenge among the busts of illustrious figures and the Villa’s secret corners.
Here, play in its most educational form becomes a powerful tool: a way of learning without even realising it, experiencing history first-hand through intuition, surprises and small discoveries. Because knowing the past can also be a light-hearted adventure, lived with wonder and a spirit of teamwork.
2) Street memories: stories in the names
Every street has a story, every name a memory. This workshop leads students to explore Lecce’s place-names, starting from archival documents and moving to the living map of the city today. Old streets resurface from the records, interwoven with the modern city in a journey that links past and present.
Who were the people whose names we see on today’s streets and squares? What stories do those names hold? An invitation to look with fresh eyes at what seems familiar, and to discover that even a street sign can become a key to history.
3) The neighbourhood tells its story… the school, the voices, the passing of time
Every school is rooted in a neighbourhood, and every neighbourhood is full of stories. This pathway begins in the Archive, tracing the origins of the school building through maps and original documents. The journey then continues outdoors, into the surrounding streets, in search of new traces of time: oral testimonies, photographs, stories of those who have lived in and transformed those places.
This is how a living file is created — constantly updated — where the memory of the past meets the present and the curious gaze of those who inhabit it today.
4) Paper Treasure Hunt: a game through the folds of time
The Historical Archive of Lecce opens its doors to a unique experience: a Paper Treasure Hunt among hidden shelves and ancient volumes. In small groups, participants move through storerooms usually closed to the public, following a mysterious map among folders, registers and concealed clues.
But beware: the Archive’s guardians are not willing to let just anyone through! Students will need to move cleverly to avoid being caught…
In the end, those who manage to solve the riddles will “unlock History” and hear a voice from the past reveal a secret kept for centuries. An exciting game, set in the very heart of the Archive, to discover — while having fun — the richness and stories hidden among the papers of time.
Writing History: from stone to the personal computer
Workshop activity, preceded by a visit to the Archive
This workshop is a journey through the documents of the Historical Archive, exploring the history, evolution, differences and similarities between book writing and documentary writing traditions. It introduces students to the fundamentals of the history of writing, from the earliest inscriptions to the advent of the personal computer and writing on devices such as smartphones or tablets.
The session begins with a short introduction to the evolution of writing, with particular attention to methods and supports, their characteristics, production techniques and customary uses. By analysing original documents preserved in the Archive — as well as high-resolution digital reproductions — students will retrace the history of writing and its materials: from the production of parchment and its preparation for writing, to the making of inks and pens, the gathering of sheets and the writing of texts, the binding of quires to form a codex, the decoration of covers and illumination, through to modern and contemporary writing and the creation of digital documents.
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