A tour between Galatina and Gallipoli!

Galatina , known before the unification of Italy as San Pietro in Galatina, is a town and comune in the Province of Lecce in Apulia, southern Italy. It is situated about 21 kilometres (13 mi) south of the city of Lecce. The main sights are: the late Romanesque church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria, built in 1390 by Raimondello del Balzo Orsini, count of Soleto, with a fine portal and rose window. The interior contains frescoes by Francesco d'Arezzo (1435). The apse contains the fine mausoleum of the son of the founder, a canopy supported by four columns, with his statue beneath it; the Baroque church of San Pietro (also known as Mother Church), rebuilt from 1633 on a previous Greek-rite edifice. the Pupa, a fountain in local limestone

UNESCO site: S. Caterina d'Alessandria cathedral! Tradition has it that the building was founded between 1369 and 1391, by the will of Raimondello Orsini del Balzo, but according to some scholars it is the result of an extension or at least a transformation of an existing plant with two bays1both for the rather anachronistic portal morphology for the second half of the fourteenth century, and for the same morphology of the capitals placed on the polytilic pillars of the first three bays of the central hall. But it would seem that this is also demonstrated by the fresco of the 'Madonna della Mela' commissioned by the Toucy family, namely Lucia d'Altavilla, Countess of Soleto in the years before 1299. The suspicion that a portion of the present façade can be traced back to that date cannot be dismissed at all2. The date affixed to the lintel of the left portal in capital letters not relevant for the period therefore loses credibility3. But it is more probable that it was founded by his uncle Raimondo del Balzo who became count of Soleto from 13194. However, tradition attributes the entire operation to his nephew Raimondello who on one of his many journeys, returning from the Crusades, went up to the top of Mount Sinai to pay homage to the body of Saint Catherine; according to legend, in leaving, kissed the saint’s hand, tearing her finger with her teeth. Back in Italy he brought with him the relic that, set in a silver reliquary, is still preserved in the church treasury. The building, on Raimondello’s death in 1405, was completed by his wife, Princess Maria d'Enghien, and then by his son, Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo.
The building was built on a pre-existing Byzantine church of Greek rite dating from the ninth-tenth century whose traces are clearly visible in the outer wall of the right aisle where the apse was incorporated, perhaps to save building material, the apse.