| The ordine Carmelitano arrived in Martina during the 17th century, and it settled in the previous, 16th century building, dedicated to Maria della Misericordia, which occupied the site where the church of the Carmine now stands. The erection works of the convent started in 1614. A few decades later, it was decided to build a new church, as the small, 16th century church, had become too cramped for the carmelitani and the worshippers. The building works started in 1730 and ended in 1758. The Baroque façade is ascribed to Mauro Manieri, an architect from Lecce, who trained in Rome. It is not by chance that the model took its cue from the Borromeo style, recognisable in its undulated movement, in the fragmented, upside-down spandrel, and by the pilasters which characterize the volumes. It is an example of sombre Baroque, which in the space of a few years would represent the architectonic and decorative archetype from which the churches of san Domenico, in 1745, and the one of san Martino in 1747, , will take their inspiration. On the high altar, it is possible to admire the canvas signed by De Mauro in 1760, depicting the Madonna del Carmelo. The same subject is represented in an even more startling way, on a canvas by Leonardo Antonio Olivieri dated 1720, which is now preserved in the vestry. In the church are also preserved the canvasses of the Madonna della Libertà (1660), by the painter from Martina Giovanni Stefano Caramia, a Deposizione of the nun Maria by Gesù Martucci, a she-painter from Martina, a copy of the Nativitàdella Vergine by Leonardo Antonio Olivieri, by De Mauro, and the wooden crucifix by Giacomo Vespasiano Genovini, a sculptor from Gallipoli.
Adjacent to the church, there is the former convent of the carmelitani; following its suppression, it was adapted to host socially oriented foundations. |