Galatina: frescoes, tarantism and the first pasticciotto
A compact old town in the Salento, 20 minutes south of Lecce, with two things almost no neighbour can match: the Basilica di Santa Caterina, a soaring Gothic church painted floor to vault with early-1400s frescoes, and the story of tarantism, the spider-bite dancing cult that ended at Galatina’s chapel of San Paolo. Add the pasticciotto, born here in 1745, and you have a rich half-day.
Best things to do in Galatina
Galatina is a working town of about 25,000 people that most people drive past on the way to the sea, and it holds one of the great painted interiors of southern Italy. Everything on this list is inside the old town and within ten minutes on foot of everything else, apart from the last two. The order below is the one we would walk.
1. Stand under the frescoes in Santa Caterina d’Alessandria
This is the reason to come to Galatina and it deserves an hour, not a look. Raimondello Orsini del Balzo had it built at the end of the 14th century, and the completion date, 1391, is carved on the architrave of the side door (the start is variously given as 1369 or 1383, depending on which account you follow). The style is the Apulian Romanesque crossed with Gothic, and none of that prepares you for the interior: nave, aisles and vaults covered floor to ceiling in early-15th-century frescoes, Old Testament, New Testament and Apocalypse, painted by workshops from several parts of Italy. Locals call it l’Assisi del Sud.
2. Find Death on the pale horse, in the first bay
Do not just crane at the ceiling and leave. The cycle runs left to right around the church, and the first bay carries the Apocalypse scenes, including a skeletal Death riding down a crowd with a lance while the moon hangs black above him. It is the single strangest image in Puglia and it is at eye level on the arch. The Lamb on Mount Sinai is in the same run. Give the first bay ten minutes before you move on, because it is the part everyone photographs badly and nobody looks at properly.
3. Look for Raimondello’s tomb and the relic he is said to have bitten off
The founder is buried in the church he built, in the funerary chapel on the axis of the nave. The story attached to him is the good one: returning from a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai, he is said to have kissed the hand of St Catherine’s body and bitten off a finger, which the church still keeps as a relic. Whether or not you believe it, it explains the dedication, the money and the scale of what he built in a small Salento town.
4. Step into the chapel of the tarantate, and look down at the well
The Cappella di San Paolo, in via Garibaldi, is an 18th-century chapel built into a palazzo and known to everyone here as the chapel of the tarantate. Until the middle of the last century, people believed to have been bitten by the taranta were brought here on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul to be freed, dancing the pizzica until the crisis passed. The anthropologist Ernesto de Martino documented the last of it in 1959. Inside there is an 18th-century altar, a canvas of St Paul and the small well whose water was held to be miraculous, now capped with a metal lid. A second, larger well stands in the courtyard behind.
5. Walk on to the Chiesa Madre, the way the tarantate did
Once released, the tarantate went from the chapel to the Chiesa Madre dei Santi Pietro e Paolo, and the walk is short enough to make the sequence real. The church has a longer history than its Baroque front suggests: parts go back to the middle of the 14th century, and the liturgy here was celebrated in the Greek rite until Pope Sixtus IV ordered the Salento dioceses over to Latin between 1471 and 1484. What you see now was rebuilt between 1621 and 1633, in Lecce stone.
6. Eat a pasticciotto at Ascalone, in Vico del Monte
The pasticciotto, the Salento’s warm shortcrust shell filled with custard, was by local tradition invented here in 1745, when Andrea Ascalone put leftover pastry and cream together during the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The Ascalone pasticceria still trades in Vico del Monte, in the old town. Eat it warm, standing up, in the morning: cold, at four in the afternoon, it is a different and much worse thing.
7. Put your head into Palazzo Orsini, the hospital that became the town hall
Raimondello did not only build the church. He also founded the Ospedale di Santa Caterina beside it, and that building is now the town hall, on via Umberto I, so you can walk into the atrium during office hours. Look for the Olivetan and Aragonese coats of arms, and above the inner portal a late-medieval relief of a horseman trampling a soldier, variously read as Raimondello himself, as St Catherine, or as Alfonso II of Aragon. Upstairs the mayor’s room has a vaulted ceiling frescoed in 1893 by Agesilao Flora.
8. Give the Museo Cavoti half an hour
The Museo Civico Pietro Cavoti sits in the Palazzo della Cultura on Piazza Alighieri, part of the town’s Polo Bibliomuseale with the library. The entrance is not on the square but round the side, from the little piazza on via Cafaro, which catches people out. It is a small civic collection rather than a national museum, and it is the right scale for a town this size.
9. Read the two buildings that face each other on via Vittorio Emanuele
Palazzo del Sedile was the old seat of the town government and of the courts, and it carries Aragonese arms from the 1400s, the 18th-century arms of the town, and a 16th-century relief of unnamed illustrious men attributed to the Schindoni brothers. Facing it stands the clock tower, put up in 1861 and dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II, so the two buildings are four centuries of local power staring at each other across a narrow street. The Sedile is the local police station now.
10. Leave through Porta Luce, and count the other two
Galatina keeps three of its gates. Porta Luce, rebuilt in 1795 and carrying the town’s coat of arms on the keystone, is the handsome one, at the western edge of the old town where via Gallipoli starts; it takes its name from the sanctuary of the Madonna della Luce nearby. The other two are Porta San Pietro, also called Porta Nuova, and Porta Cappuccini.
11. Walk out to the crypt of the Madonna della Grottella
This one is outside the walls and worth the twenty minutes. Just under a kilometre north-east of town, on via Trapani, a church sits over a crypt cut into the soft tufa, with frescoes still on the rock walls. Rock-cut churches are the layer of Puglia that most visitors never see, and this is an easy one to reach on foot from the centre. Check locally before you go: it is not a ticketed site with fixed hours.
12. If you can choose your dates, come for 28 and 29 June
The patronal feast of Saints Peter and Paul is the hinge of the year here, and it is the date on which the old rite of the tarantate took place. What survives is a feast rather than a trance, and anyone selling you a live tarantism ritual is selling you something. But the town is at its fullest, the chapel of San Paolo is open and busy, and you will understand the place better on those two days than on any other.
The Orsini town
Two threads run through Galatina: the medieval feudal family who gave it its great church, and the Greek-speaking world it once belonged to.
Galatina’s golden age belongs to the Orsini del Balzo, the great feudal family who held the town in the late Middle Ages and gave it Santa Caterina. First recorded in 1178 as the casale of San Pietro in Galatina, it kept that name until it was shortened to Galatina after Italian unification, in the early 1860s; Ferdinand IV had raised it to the rank of città in 1793.
Galatina sits at the edge of the Grecia Salentina, the cluster of villages, Calimera, Martano, Sternatia, Corigliano d’Otranto and their neighbours, where an ancient Greek dialect called Griko still survives. Our guide to Griko and the Grecia Salentina covers what you will actually see there, and what will disappoint you. Galatina itself was part of that Greek-speaking world in the Middle Ages, but its speech shifted long ago to the Salentino dialect, so today it is not one of the Griko villages, more the substantial town at their door. It has a second, grander church too: the Baroque Chiesa Madre of Santi Pietro e Paolo, in Lecce stone.
| Galatina in brief | Note |
|---|---|
| Where | Province of Lecce, in the central Salento |
| Santa Caterina | Romanesque-Gothic basilica, frescoed early 15th c. |
| Built by | Raimondello Orsini del Balzo, complete by 1391 |
| Tarantism | The cult’s centre; the chapel of San Paolo |
| Pasticciotto | Invented here by tradition, 1745 |
Galatina is about 20 km south of Lecce, at the edge of the Grecia Salentina.
Where to stay in Galatina
My honest steer: Galatina is a half-day stop, not a base. Most visitors sleep in Lecce (20 minutes north) or on the coast and come for the morning. That said, it is a quiet, affordable town with a handful of B&Bs and palazzo stays in the old centre, and it makes a calm, central pad for touring the Grecia Salentina and both Salento coasts.
Compare live prices for B&Bs and palazzo stays in and around Galatina on the map.
Our top experiences in Galatina
Galatina is about the church, the cult and the pastry, plus the Griko villages that ring it. The experiences hub links the rest of Puglia.
See live tours and activities in Galatina
Live availability and prices via GetYourGuide, updated in real time.
Getting to Galatina
Galatina sits inland in the central Salento, an easy hop south of Lecce and one of the towns you can reach by the little FSE railway.
| From | Distance | By car |
|---|---|---|
| Lecce | ~21 km | ~30 min |
| Gallipoli | ~21 km | ~30 min |
| Nardò | ~15 km | ~20 min |
| Otranto | ~45 km | ~45 min |
| Brindisi airport (BDS) | ~70 km | ~1 hr |
| Bari airport (BRI) | ~150 km | ~1 hr 45 |
By train: Galatina is on the Ferrovie del Sud Est Lecce to Gallipoli line: roughly 30 minutes from Lecce, and about 50 minutes on to Gallipoli. · Best towns in Puglia
Arriving by air? Brindisi-Salento (BDS) is the nearest airport, about 70 km away; Bari (BRI) is much farther. A fixed-price private airport transfer takes the stress out of the first leg, and an Italy eSIM keeps your maps working. To loop the Grecia Salentina villages you will want your own wheels: see renting a car in Puglia.
Day trips from Galatina
Galatina is central, so both Salento coasts and the baroque capital are close. String a couple together with a morning at Santa Caterina.
Lecce
The baroque capital of the south, ~30 min
Lecce guide
Gallipoli
Island old town on the Ionian, ~30 min
Gallipoli guide
Otranto
Italy’s easternmost town, ~45 min
Otranto guide
Grecia Salentina & more
Best time to visit
Galatina is an indoor-and-old-town visit, so it works year round; spring and autumn are loveliest, and the cave-cool Santa Caterina is a welcome escape in high summer. For the living tradition, the pizzica festivals peak in August, and the feast of San Paolo falls on 29 June. Best time to visit Puglia
Keep planning
Practical guides: Getting to Puglia · Renting a car in Puglia · Day trips from Lecce
Galatina: FAQ
What is Galatina known for?
Galatina, in the Salento about 20 km south of Lecce, is known for three things: the Basilica di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, a Gothic church frescoed floor to vault; its role as the historic centre of tarantism, the spider-bite dancing cult, at the chapel of San Paolo; and as the birthplace, by tradition, of the pasticciotto pastry.
Why is the Basilica di Santa Caterina famous?
It is one of the most important frescoed churches in southern Italy. Built for Raimondello Orsini del Balzo and complete by 1391, this Romanesque-Gothic basilica has its nave and vaults covered in early-15th-century frescoes of the Old and New Testaments and the Apocalypse, painted by workshops from across Italy. Locals call it the Assisi of the South.
What is Galatina’s connection to tarantism?
Galatina was the centre of tarantismo, the old Salento cult of the taranta spider. The town was held to be immune to venom under the protection of St Paul, and each 29 June the tarantate, believed bitten and thrown into a trance, were brought to the chapel of San Paolo to be cured by its well water and the frenzied pizzica dance. Ernesto de Martino documented the last rites here in 1959.
Is Galatina part of the Grecia Salentina?
Historically Galatina was inside the Greek-speaking zone, but its dialect shifted centuries ago to Salentino, so today it is not one of the official Griko villages, more the substantial town at their edge. It makes a good base for touring the Grecia Salentina, the cluster of villages where the ancient Griko dialect still survives.
How do you get to Galatina?
Galatina is about 21 km and 30 minutes south of Lecce. It sits on the Ferrovie del Sud Est (FSE) line from Lecce to Gallipoli, roughly 30 minutes by train from Lecce. The nearest airport is Brindisi-Salento, about 70 km away.
How long do you need in Galatina?
Half a day covers it properly, and that is not a slight: the town is compact and everything on our list except the Grottella crypt is within ten minutes on foot. Budget a full hour inside the Basilica di Santa Caterina, because the frescoes are the reason to come and twenty minutes is not enough to find the Apocalypse cycle in the first bay. Add a morning if you want to sit in a bar with a pasticciotto and watch the town work.
Where was the pasticciotto invented?
In Galatina, by local tradition, in 1745, when Andrea Ascalone put leftover pastry and custard together during the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The Ascalone pasticceria still trades in Vico del Monte in the old town. The pasticciotto is now made across the Salento, but Galatina is where the claim starts, and locals do not treat that lightly.
Where is the well of San Paolo in Galatina?
There are two. The small one is inside the Cappella di San Paolo in via Garibaldi, under the painting of the saint, and it is now closed with a metal lid; a second, larger well stands in the courtyard behind the chapel. Until the middle of the last century the water was drunk by the tarantate on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, on 28 and 29 June.
Related: Lecce · Gallipoli · Notte della Taranta · Day trips from Lecce · All destinations
I grew up in the province of Brindisi and spent 30 years in Puglia. Galatina is the stop I send people to when they think they have seen the Salento: a fresco-covered church and a piece of living myth, half an hour from Lecce. Everything above is checked on the ground; when a place changes, it gets updated. More about who is behind this guide