The best walks and hikes around Sternatia

Beautiful place in Puglia

Galatina is located in central Salento, about 20 km from Lecce. It is a city of art and culture, with a Baroque-style historic center and the famous basilica of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria. It is also known for the phenomenon of tarantism and every year on the anniversary of Saints Peter and Paul, on June 29, the ancient therapeutic ritual is recalled with the tarantatas who dance the tarantella to the sound of violin and tambourine.

Included in the Salento Bizantino collection komoot.it/collection/1811756/-salento-bizantino - Normally open even outside the times of worship, it is highly valued and easily usable. It marks the marked passage of iconography and frescoes from the Byzantine to the Latin. https://youtu.be/hMoC4z4T7TU

It's a small town of just over seven thousand inhabitants. It belongs, together with the municipalities of Martignano, Sternatia, Zollino, Martano, Castrignano de 'Greci, Corigliano d'Otranto, Soleto and Melpignano, to the so-called area of ​​"Grecìa Salentina", a sub-area of ​​the province of Lecce where remains alive in some traditions the Greek-Byzantine culture spread in Puglia between the sixth and twelfth centuries and in particular the dialect, now considered as a real language, the 'griko'. The name of the town infact comes from 'Kalimera', meaning "good morning" in Greek. After all, the Byzantine influence continued to exist in the religious rite until 1663 and this also allowed the language to be preserved. Moving slightly away from the original route and follow to the right (with the church at your back) along via Montinari, the most important axis of the town, you can reach the small church of S. Antonio and the sider "hospitale" which once welcomed pilgrims and passing people. The road has beautiful courtyards, such as that of S. Calimero and S. Paolo. Some others smaller courtyards are an example of a poor peasant dwelling, equipped with a room in front (the 'sappuèrtu') which served as a tool's shed and animals'shelter.

Moving slightly away from the official route (100m on the left), at Via Garibaldi n.2 there is the San Paul chapel, a small and simple religious architecture linked to the famous myth of the 'Tarantism'. The legend told that the Apostles Peter and Paul, during their travel around the world, stopped at Galatina and were hosted by a local in their home, which stood where the Chapel is based today. To thank him for his kind hospitality, St. Paul gave man and his descendants the power to heal all those who had been bitten by poisonous spiders, defined in the dialect as "tarante". Simply by drinking the water from the well, placed inside the house and making the sign of the cross on the wound, that brutal disease could be defeated. The feast held on June 29 is linked to the figure of Saint Paul and to this legend. In that occasion crowd in the squares dancing the rhythm of the 'pizzica-pizzica' played with tambourines, accordions and singing accompaniment.

Overlooking St. Peter's Square, in the area of ​​the historic center where once stood the main gate 'Porta Maggiore', the mother church dedicated to the patron saints Peter and Paul has a spectacular façade, a sign of the Baroque style, which characterizes much of the religious building and private city. Built since 1633, the current church is the result of renovations that took place between the seventeenth and seventeenth centuries. The interior, marked by three naves, has sider chapels, frescoed ceilings and several paintings and sculptures from the XVI to the XVIII century.

It's a late Romanesque and Gothic construction, built between 1369 and 1391. The church was enlarged by Count Raimono Orsini del Balzo, while his wife Maria d'Enghien was the promoter of the splendid cycles of frescoes of the interiors (comparable to those of Assisi), for which in the fifteenth century he called the best artists of Naples. From 1494 the building belonged to the Olivetan monks and in 1597 it was entrusted to the Reformed fathers, who erected the new convent. The construction of the four-sided portico on the ground floor, with the convent workshops and the refectory, dates back to this period. Externally, the Romanesque façade is enriched by a finely decorated portal and a rose window that seems to be embroidered in the stone.

The Mother Church has a Latin cross plan and was built in 1689 on the ruins of a Greek rite church. It stands in the main square of the town called "del Sole" and is accompanied by a four-storey bell tower of which the last is octagonal. Particularly valuable are the interiors, as the Renaissance and Baroque altars and beautiful paintings. Noteworthy is the canvas of the 'Madonna della Misericordia', which offers an unprecedented pregnant Madonna. Initially the church had two naves; at the end of the XVII century it was rebuilt with a single nave. Some hatches give access to the underground tombs.