In order to offer this audioguide for free we have been forced to reduce production costs, using, of course, artificial intelligence both for translation and sound commentary.
We like to introduce the description of this audio guide dedicated to one of the many cultural jewels in the land of Puglia, the Basilica of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Galatina in the province of Lecce, with an RAI service by Osvaldo Bevilacqua.
About 18 km from Lecce we find Galatina. Greek origin, but the first documents, the official ones date back to the thirteenth century when Charles I of Anjou granted the fief of San Pietro di Galatina to the noble family of Balzo Orsini. It must be said that one of the most common definitions of Galatina is the navel of Salento, because its position is almost equidistant between the two seas of the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea. A historic center of all respect with its walls, fourteenth-century walls and then rebuilt in the fifteenth century, its alleys, palaces, churches, this spectacular facade of the church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, because according to the tradition St. Peter would stopped here during his apostolic journey to Rome. A truly extraordinary Baroque façade of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries because it was built on a pre-existing medieval church. And here in Galatina another church not to be missed is the basilica dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria. In a certain sense, the matrix of Saint Peter and Paul was born in opposition to the mother church, which was then of course a Greek rite.
