Where you can legally marry in Puglia

This page covers five comuni in Puglia that legally marry couples who live abroad: Monopoli, Martina Franca, Lecce, Otranto and Gallipoli. Each comune (the local council) has its own venues, its own list of approved outside venues, its own fees and its own rules, and in Puglia those outside lists include masserie, the fortified farmhouses of the countryside, and in Gallipoli a row of beach clubs. These five are examples: most comuni in Puglia hold civil weddings for couples from abroad, and venues, fees and days change from year to year.

A legal wedding in Italy has to take place somewhere the comune has approved: one of its own venues, or an outside venue it has authorised, such as a masseria, villa or hotel. Everything below is on a comune’s approved list, so a wedding there is legal and counts at home.

Monopoli: a castle half in the sea

Monopoli publishes three settings of its own and five private ones, each with a single price that is the same whether or not you live in the town. The Castello Carlo V is a five-sided sixteenth-century fort on the most seaward point of the old town; an eighteenth-century historian wrote that half of it was in the sea. Its upper courtyard, open to the sky, seats 70, and its two halls seat 45 and 80.

The comune charges €700 for a wedding at the castle, and a request goes in at least 30 days ahead. The Sala delle Terre Parlanti in Palazzo San Giuseppe costs €244, and the council chamber in the municipio is free.

The approved private venues are La Peschiera Hotel on the water, Masseria Torrepietra, Masseria Donnaloia, Tenuta Monacelle and Lido Porto Pino, a beach club. The comune lists €1,000 for any other venue, on top of what the venue charges. These are the figures on the comune’s page as updated in January 2026.

Martina Franca: a ducal palace in the Valle d’Itria

Martina Franca’s municipio is the Palazzo Ducale, and the comune marries couples in the palace’s Sala D’Avalos, known as the Sala degli Uccelli, in the council chamber, in the Teatro Valerio Cappelli and in the church of San Nicola dei Greci. Weddings in office hours are free, and there is a charge outside them.

Since 2018 the comune has also approved outside venues by regulation. It does not publish the list of approved venues or its fees outside office hours online, so the comune confirms both when you book.

Lecce: a cloistered garden and the town park

Lecce, the baroque capital of the Salento, holds weddings in several settings of its own, and the comune’s published list (2024) gives their sizes. The former Conservatorio di Sant’Anna on via Santa Maria del Paradiso has a garden for up to 200 and a hall for up to 70. The Villa Comunale, the town’s public garden, takes up to 300, as does the Circolo Tennis “Mario Stasi” beside the Arco di Trionfo. In the centre of the old town, the Sala Giunta in Palazzo Carafa, the municipio, holds up to 50.

The Sala Giunta is free in office hours, and the Sant’Anna garden and hall are free only for residents. Couples who live elsewhere pay at the other settings, and the comune confirms its fee when you book. Lecce also marries couples at private venues that hold an agreement with the comune.

Otranto: a hall in the Aragonese castle

Otranto is the most easterly town in Italy, and its Aragonese castle stands at the edge of the old town above the harbour. The comune holds weddings in the castle’s Sala Rettangolare on request. When neither of you lives in Otranto, the comune charges €250 (2014 notice, still on the comune’s site).

Gallipoli: an island castle and weddings on the beach

Gallipoli’s old town sits on an island joined to the mainland by a bridge, with its Angevin castle at the island end. The comune’s regulations approve two halls in the castle, the Sala Ennagonale and the Sala Circolare, as well as the council chamber, the Teatro Garibaldi and two other comune halls.

Gallipoli’s list of fifteen approved outside venues (updated March 2024) is mostly beach clubs and resorts, including Punto Fisso Beach at Padula Bianca, Lido Pizzo, Lido San Giovanni and Zeus Beach, alongside villas such as Villa dei Fiori and Tenuta Ferraro.

Standard slots are weekday mornings from 10:00 to 12:00 and Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, with Saturday mornings and other afternoons available for a charge. The comune does not marry on public holidays, including 14 to 16 August. Bookings go in at least 20 working days ahead, and your interpreter has to appear before the registrar at least seven days before the wedding. The comune charges €100 for a castle hall in regulation hours and €200 outside them, plus the castle’s own hall hire, and €150 at an approved outside venue in regulation hours and €350 at weekends and other times, with the venue’s own charge on top. Gallipoli charges couples who live elsewhere the same as residents (2018 tariff, attached to the regulation on the comune’s site).

What these have in common

In every case the registrar conducts the ceremony in Italian, and if either of you does not speak Italian, the law requires an interpreter, who cannot be one of you. The paperwork you need depends on your nationality, not on the comune. What changes from one comune to the next is the setting, the price, the days it marries and how far ahead it takes bookings. The outdoor settings on this page are the Sant’Anna garden and the Villa Comunale in Lecce and the beach clubs on Gallipoli’s list.

If one of these places is the one you are picturing, or you have somewhere else in Puglia in mind, book a call or message us on WhatsApp with your date and roughly how many guests, and we will find out what the comune there can offer.

Checked October 2026.

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