Church Matrice - Basilica Pontificia del SS. Rosario

This church, also known as Basilica Minore del Santo Rosario, is of great interest. Legend has it that the church was built after an icon of the Madonna was found during a hunting expedition ordered by the future Emperor Philip I of Anjou. Local historians report that the church was completed around 1320, along with the crypt below.

Further additions were made around 1500, including the construction of the central chapel, which houses the holy icon of the Madonna. The current structure was instead built between 1743 and 1759, following the earthquake that struck the city in 1743. During the restoration of the church, a beautiful Byzantine fresco, which still exists, was painted on the altar of the chapel dedicated to the Madonna.

The church, in splendid Baroque style, has a sober and elegant façade, harmonious as a whole, dominated at the top by a symbolic star that can only be seen if you stand back from the church. The façade is adorned at the ends with two statues representing St. Peter and St. Paul, flanked by an architectural line that forms the figure of a small vortex. The beautiful dome, which can be seen behind the façade, is not only the highest in the Salento area, but is also covered with green, white and brick coloured majolica tiles, with geometric effects of absolute vitality. Another peculiarity of the church is the layout of the rooms, which is based on a Greek cross. This is a structural model that can be considered rare in Salento churches of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, almost all of which were designed according to the more traditional Latin cross plan. Beyond the three entrance doors, you will be catapulted into the aesthetic reality of the Salento Baroque, composed of stucco and marble, paintings, wooden sculptures and statues for a spectacle of great beauty.