The current facade of the church is the result of numerous successive remodeling until the 20th century. The interior, by contrast, is an explosion of Baroque art with beautiful altars with finely carved and twisted columns and paintings, as the seventeenth-century Vision of St. Francis by Frate Angelo da Copertino, adorning the great nave. The nave, along with the choir, are the result of a series of interventions that occurred at different times. The choir, in fact, destroyed in December 1931 by a fire, was restored only in 2004 with an opera of a Bolivian craftsman Giuseppe Valente of Miggiano. The church contains valuable Baroque altars made of Leccese stone dedicated to St. Nicholas (1653), the Crucifix (1683), the Immaculate Conception (1781) and San Vito (1807). The Leccese-stone ...

The interior of the church, of modest dimension (7 x 7 m), has a plan of a single chamber and two apses, a quite unique example in Salento. Inside, on the front wall and the apses, are gravely damaged layers of frescoes and graffiti from the Byzantine period (XI-XII sec.). In the left apse, among the oldest frescoes and Byzantine style, is a depiction of St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of the coming of the Messiah, recognizable by the inscription in Greek inserted in a cartouche "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness".  In the right, overlaid on the oldest images, are more recent  frescoes, probably dating between the sixteenth and seventeenth century: in the middle is a Christ Pantocrator, a Franciscan saint on the right and a holy bishop on the ...

The Santuario di Santa Marina, located in the hamlet of Ruggiano, is part of a medieval sanctuary remodeled several times over the centuries. The facade looks simple and linear, based on a unique order of Ionic pilasters that mark the aspect in two symmetrical and vertical registers, and ends up with horizontal beams and a large triangular pediment with frame moldings of a bull, a throat and teeth. In addition to this sober setting is the rococo sculptural ornamentation of the portals, the windows and the vertex of the tympanum. The interior has two naves and reflects the particular structure of the facade.   The church keeps notable works including a wooden statue and a fresco depicting the image of the owner represented as a young virgin who dominates a monstrous dragon ...

The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra, is located on the outskirts of the village, where a farm was once open. The church probably dates back to the eleventh century and is one of the medieval remains of the territory. The structure has a single nave with south / east - north / west indications to the point where the sun rises on the day of the feast of St. Nicholas (6 December).   The church was restored in 1587 transforming it into its current appearance, throughout the transition from the Greek-Byzantine rite, which was previously practiced, into the Latin rite. Inside, however, a stone remained that refers to its ancient origins. The roof in double truss was replaced by the current vault in tuff. The date and the coat of arms of Specchia are engraved on the key. It has a ...

Consisting of a single barrel-vaulted room, the church presents entirely frescoed walls, including the vault on which center a coat of arms is painted  and is in fair condition. On the wall, surmounting the altar is a depiction of the Madonna of Constantinople, while in a lunette above the entrance, is an unusual fresco of Jesus carrying the cross in an outdated country landscape. On the walls are full length paintings of several saints including St. Nicholas, St. Rocco, St. Anthony Abate and St. Anthony of Padua. ...

The Saint Sophia Church of Corsano was completely rebuilt in 1939 by the architect Benito Leante di Galatone, on the site of a sixteenth century church which was destroyed because of some static failures of the foundations.   The exterior facade is very simple, reminiscent of the Romanesque style, has a large rose window and lombard bands that decorate the top part.   The interior is also very simple, divided into three naves, each ending with an altar, the major, central, is dedicated to Saint Sophia, the sides are dedicated to San Biagio and to Our Lady of the Rosary. From the antique structure, some paintings and eighteenth-century wooden pulpit were preserved.  ...

It features a simple façade set on three orders. The lower order is characterized by a Baroque portal on which the date "1758" can be seen; the second order has a central window in lira; while the mixed-line tympanum, with a statue of St Ippazio in the center of a niche, was built later as the date of 1791 indicates.   The interior, with a Latin cross, has two deep chapels on each side. In addition to valuable paintings, inside is a sixteenth-century pulpit with arabesque motifs and a pipe organ arranged on wooden choir with paintings of stalls. On a pillar is a fresco from the first half of the sixteenth century, relevant to the previous structure, depicting Saint Eligio. ...

Taking Via Tempio from the small square in front of the Tricase cathedral, a small structure can be found, which in present time is privately owned, and is easily identified as a small church for the shape of its facade.   The facade is very simple with a portal surmounted by a rose window.   Inside, the structure has a rectangular plan and ends with a pseudo-apse on which a door opens that connects to the house behind it, which probably have been the accommodation of the monks. A picture of Mary used to be above the door, which left no trace of its remains.   During the restoration, an ossuary in a tufaceous bank was discovered from under the floor. ...

The mother church of Tricase is dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The present structure is the result of a series of renovations that were carried out over the centuries.   The main façade has a portal decorated by columns with composite capitals, topped by a niche which houses the statue of the praying Mary.   The interior, in a simple Latin cross with a single nave and a transept, is furnished with furniture and accessories of the previous structures such as the Renaissance baptismal fountain, visible on the left upon entering the church. In the left transept, a monumental altar hosts the sixteenth century painting of the Virgin with Child and Saints Matteo and Francesco da Paola, attributed to Paolo Caliari the Veronese; while the ...

The Baroque facade of San Domenico church, completed in the seventeenth century, has a portal surmounted by a statue of St. Dominic de Guzman, and the busts of St. Peter and St. Paul. The top of the pediment is decorated with statues of saints valued in the Dominican Order.   The interior, with a single nave, is illuminated by 13 window lyre, and has seven chapels alternated with polychrome statues of Dominican saints. The transept is replaced by two large chapels that proceed to the main altar. Baroque altars and precious paintings decorate the church: artists like Saverio Lillo, Giovan Domenico Catalano, Giuseppe Zimbalo, and Gioacchino Toma worked on them.   Down the nave, the wooden choir is located, made in 1703 by Oronzo Pirti. The suspended wooden sky with ...

The little church, located in the countryside northwest of Tricase, in the territory of Tutino, presents a somber façade with a simple portal that bears the inscription "Virgini Pietatis Dicatum". The interior has a unique nave and ends with the main altar topped by a modern mosaic depicting the Pietà (a replacement of an old painting, stolen in the 70s). ...

The small chapel of St. Elias is a non-urban structure, north of Depressa, along the road to Castiglione. The church was built in the seventeenth century, in an area characterized by the presence of ancient necropolis. The facade is very simple and leads into a rectangular room with a small altar on which there used to be a picture of the Transfiguration. ...

The Church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, known locally as the Chiesa dei Diavoli, is a extra-urban octagonal structure, built in the seventeenth century by the Marquis Gattinara. The upper part of the church is defined by a double cornice which makes the extrados of the vault instantly visible. A bell tower is set on the attic of the brickwork on the southeastern part.   The interior is marked by angular pilasters with Corinthian capitals and round arches; the ceiling consists of a pavilion vault with lunettes set on the octagonal support. The remains of the original altar are on the walls. The Virgin of Constantinople, adored by angels, saints and by the same developer was depicted on the main altar. ...

The church was built in honor of Our Lady of Grace in 1679, along Via dei Pellegrini, in an area where there was once a small village which arose as a result of the destruction of the city of Vereto.   The edifice, with a single hall and covered with a star vault with lunettes and allegorical masks, presents a very poor condition; only a rudimentary altar in tuff, topped by a Marian image, is preserved.   In the surrounding area, the church attests to the presence of numerous caves and medieval tombs, which retain no trace of the dead for it has already been opened and robbed in the past.   ...

The Church of San Giuseppe, located halfway between Salignano and Santa Maria di Leuca, is established along one of the main transport routes of the Pilgrims, who at this point could see from afar - for the first time - the final destination of their journey: the Sanctuary of Leuca. Many of them could find refreshments and accommodations in some purposely set up areas in the immediate vicinity of the building of worship.   The church was built between 1617 and 1630. The construction took so long for the fact that after a few years of the initial works, they were interrupted by the arrival of the Algerians in the Capo di Leuca and was resumed only later.   Today the church is surrounded by a large pine grove and is open on the feast of St. Joseph.   ...

The church, dedicated to Madonna Assunta, has a rectangular plan with a single hall, a simple facade and a small bell tower. The interior was decorated with frescoes, today highly deteriorated, including an interesting fresco depicting St. Paul with the sword on which a snake is wrapped around while at the foot of the saint is a scorpion surmounted by two intertwined snakes in the form of caduceus. This particular iconography of the Saint associates it with the typical phenomenon of Salento tarantism: referring to an episode in which, according to tradition, St. Paul, while in Malta, was bitten by a snake, but the poison did not cause him any damage, for this he obtained the title of protector against bites of poisonous animals and, consequently, the patron saint of tarantate.   ...

The rural church of the Crocifisso was built in 1651, located along the street of Via dei Pellegrini. It presents a simple gabled facade framed between two powerful pilasters. In the lateral part stands a small bell tower. The interior is characterized by a single nave divided into two bays with a star vault.   It presents modest decorations in which emerges, however, the splendid altar of 1670 decorated with polychrome plaster, by a sculptor of Alessano origin Placido Buffelli, containing a painting of Christ's face. The church houses an ancient crucifix and a statue of the dead Christ. ...

The small church was rebuilt in the sixteenth century on the Serra dei Cianci, along Via dei Pellegrini.   The church is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1218, when it was part of the property belonging to the abbey of St. Nicola of Casole.   It has a simple rectangular plan and a single nave. The numerous interventions endured by the church over the centuries have totally altered its original appearance. Today, the church is in a very bad state of conservation and maintenance.   ...

The small church, dedicated to Our Lady of Constantinople, was built in 1628. The façade is simple, with pitched roof and a unique entrance portal surmounted by a niche.   The corners are emphasized by an ashlars pattern. On its peak is an elegant motif of blind arches. Inside, it has several Byzantine-inspired frescoes and a painting of 1700 depicting the image of the Virgin and Child, oil on large canvas, made by an unknown artist in the first half of eighteenth century. On the sides are Sant’Oronzo, Sant’Antonio Abate, San Leonardo and Santi Medici   Leaning against the chapel is a partially ruined building, probably served as accommodation and refuge for pilgrims.   ...

The Mother Church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, presents a plain façade divided into three parts by tall pilasters. The central part is enriched by an elegant Baroque doorway surmounted by a stone statue of the Virgin. Above the portal are an inscription and a window lyre, which is next to a clock. The aspect ends with a curved pediment, at the sides of which stand two belfries. The interior, with three naves, houses some of the altars with paintings such as the Immaculate, an opera recently attributed to the painter Aniello Letizia. The seventeenth-century wooden statue of the Venetian Saint Donato, patron saint of the town, is of particular interest. ...

The Chapel of Our Lady of Itri presents a simple neoclassical facade consisting of a portal with tympanum and central two-mullioned window. The interior has a single room with an altar in Leccese stone, behind which a small door allows access to the Byzantine church, with a rectangular plan, dedicated to St. Nicholas. The church, entirely frescoed, presents six overlapping phases on the walls from which it is possible to gather information about the style and the different periods in which the frescoes were made. At the foot of the east wall is a depiction of Our Lady of Itri. A small Baroque altar, of the 17th century, holds the statues of Mary, of an unknown saint, probably St. Irene, and of St. Marina. At its left is a niche that was intended as prosthesis, the altar of the Orthodox ...

The Church of Madonna degli Angeli was built in 1902. The edifice, located in the countryside between San Cassiano and Nociglia, was erected on the grounds of a small, eleventh-century church. ...

The church presents a mono-apex façade, framed between two pilasters, following the Neoclassical style. On the portal is an ovoid-shaped niche in which the image of St. Stephen kneeling is painted, with his white tunic and a cross-signed diaconal, on a Palestinian landscape background. Standing arrear is the square bell tower of 1892, on top of which is a statue of the saint. The most notable surviving element of the medieval chapel is the central part of the façade; it was saved because, in subsequent reconstructions and renovations, it had been first used as posterior wall then as a dividing wall between the space behind the altar and the room for the sacristy in the current building. The interior, with a single nave, contains a wooden statue of St. Stephen ...

The façade is framed between two bell towers and extends into two articulate arrays of pilasters. Placed on the architrave of the front door is the coat of arms of Taurisano: a bull in the hills. The interior, with a Latin cross outline and a single nave, has a ribbed vault entirely frescoed with festoons and arabesques. The nave and transept are embellished by altars dedicated to Saint Lucia, St. Anthony of Padua, to the Souls in Purgatory, St. Vito, the Mercy, the Holy Family, St. Stephen the protomartyr and to Our Lady of the Rosary. These were built between 1838 and 1840, except for the altars of St. Anthony of Padua, erected in 1815, and of Our Lady of the Rosary in 1885. Almost all of the frescoes came from the ancient parish and date back to the seventeenth century and the ...

The façade of the church is characterized by a portal framed between two columns surmounted by capitals, which support two squatting animals, a lion and a bull, from which are grafted cusps creating a kind of portico. The portal consists of three carved concentric bands, interlacing the geometric and plant motifs, which enclose the architrave where the Annunciation is represented: the scene is framed between two columns where two rampant birds (peacocks), archangel Gabriele (left) and the figure of the Virgin seated on a throne (right) are juxtaposed; the angelic salutation is engraved in Greek between the figures. At the center, the rose window has three carved concentric crowns. The inner band is made with intertwining plants, among which you can see small figures of ...

Outside the town of Giuliano, it is possible to visit the Romanesque Chiesa di San Pietro. The structure has a rectangular plan with a single nave and semicircular apse. It was built with masonry blocks in double vestment using also some reusable blocks from funeral buildings of the Roman period from the ancient site of Vereto, including a precious Doric frieze with a triglyph and two metopes with ox skulls. Inside, there are traces of several layers of plaster painted with figures of Byzantine saints, naval graffiti, and an inscription in Greek, evidence of the passage of pilgrims who perhaps would stop here to rest before heading to Santa Maria di Leuca. Behind the apse are many medieval graves and a well, probably used for Byzantine baptismal.   ...

The mother church of Giuliano, dedicated to San Giovanni Crisostomo, was built in the sixteenth century on a preexisting building. The numerous restorations and renovations that it had been put through over the centuries have led to its current appearance: a façade in neoclassic style with pilasters and central door surmounted by an epigraph with a dedication, all results of work carried out at the end of nineteenth century. The interior, with three naves, is rich in operas created in different periods. Some frescoes of 1564 and a bas-relief in Leccese stone of 1612 depicting "the Mercy" are remains of the oldest phase of the church. The side chapels are home to Baroque altars topped with some paintings of great artistic value. The stucco ...

The chapel, dedicated to Santa Barbara, was built in the thirteenth and fourteenth century, inside a feminine convention complex of Clarisse and Benedictine, of which ruins in the vicinity are used for agricultural purposes. The facade has an entrance door with a monolithic architrave surmounted by a lunette, probably once painted. Above the lunette was a rose window, now occluded by blocks of tuff. The chapel has a unique rectangular interior plan with a semicircular apse. The latter appears barred by tuff blocks, from the destruction of the apse, facing east. Along the north wall is a door that connected the church with the adjacent monastic area.  Traces of preserved frescoes are really rare: on the northern wall are traces of a Deesis: Mary, Christ and St. John the Baptist, ...

The small church of Santo Stefano, built near the settlement of Macurano, was built in 1585 and has a belfry on the facade and a fresco of St. Stephen on the back wall, with some votive inscriptions on the visible sides under the layer of actual plaster. ...

The majestic facade of the church of San Salvatore, overlooking Piazza Don Tonino Bello, has three entrances: on the middle one, bigger in size, is a plaque and the coat of arms of Alessano. The interior is in a Latin cross form divided by pillars into three naves and has paintings of excellent workmanship such as "Saint Tryphon in glory" by Oronzo Letizia, and a painting attributed to Caravaggio school by Paolo Finoglio "Archangel Raphael and Tobias." The wooden pulpit of 1879 is valuable, by Giuseppe De Cupertinis. In the right wing is the altar of St. Tryphon, the patron saint of the city. ...

The church of Madonna Addolorata, on the outskirts of the hamlet of Lucugnano, presents a simple façade characterized by two empty niches flanking the entrance portal. The facade ends with a small mixed-linear crown and two pinnacles at each end. The four-sided interior, houses a unique marble altar, consisting of an architectural element in Leccese stone surmounted by an altarpiece depicting  Our Lady of Sorrows or the Seven Sorrows, commissioned by Anna Carignani, wife of the Marquis of Botrugno, Saverio Castriota.   In the anterior of the altar, under the refectory, is the statue of the dead Christ, which is carried in procession on Good Friday along with Our Lady of Sorrows kept in a niche of the presbytery. On the right wall is the ...

The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is located in the small town of Lucugnano, between Palazzo Comi and the baronial castle. The inscription on the façade attests the existence of the church as early as 1725. The facade, recently repainted in a rosy shade, is bordered by two pilasters topped by four pinnacles with a central pediment in mixtilinear frame with four scrolls. None of these elements, however, allows you to define the exact events that have characterized its construction history. The interior has a nave divided into two bays with a rectangular apse. The cover is formed by twice the intersection of sharp edges and once of a barrel with lunettes. The main altar is made of Leccese stone, carved with floral motifs, angels and cherubs, dedicated to Our Lady of Grace, ...

The structure, with east / west orientation, has a longitudinal plan divided into three naves and is characterized by a series of three arches supported by three columns of which the highest is the central one. The façade is adorned with a two-mullioned window divided by a slender column with a truncated pyramid capital on which a lobed cross is carved, typical of the Eastern iconography, above the portal entrance in a slightly ogival arch.   The apse outside, typically Byzantine, is in a polygonal shape, while the one inside is in circular form and is characterized by a two-mullioned window with arches of unequal radius. On the southern wall, one of the slabs of stone carved into a cruciform window is preserved. Inside is a large stone statue of St. Euphemia. The altar was ...