Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Galatina

The church of St. Peter and Paul is the 36-meter-high mother church of Galatina.

Overlooking St. Peter's Square, in the area of the historic center where the Porta Maggiore once stood, the Matrix Church of Saints Peter and Paul has a dramatic facade, a sign of the Baroque taste that characterizes much of the city's religious and private buildings.

The present church is the result of a rebuilding that took place between the 1730s and 1740s, at the behest of the Universitas, which gave the mother church a prominent role compared to the other city churches. The 1743 earthquake damaged it profoundly and, in the second half of the century, several remakes were carried out.

It stands on the site of an earlier religious building. It is known for certain that in 1355 work was done to rebuild a pre-existing chapel in which the Greek rite was celebrated. Greek remained the official language in the rites of this church until the mid-16th century. The city was, in fact, considered Greek.