| The Church of Santa Maria dei Martiri is on the coast road which leads to Santa Cesarea Terme, on a hill which still today is called "Colle della Minerva" (Minerva's hill), as it was likely once to have been seat to a temple dedicated to the Goddess Minerva. The church, built in 1614, was built onto the ex Convent of the Minimi, known to have been there since 1542. Known also by the name of Church of San Francesco di Paola (Saint Francis of Paula), it was built for the piety of some faithful church followers and dedicated to the Martyrs of Otranto, who died on this hill. Inside the church, in memory of this act, there is a chapel containing the stone upon which the martyrs were beheaded. The works of the Albanian painter Gurim Barzaiti (1992) are also worth looking at here, paintings of the Immaculate Conception, of Archangel Michael and of Holy Mary of the Martyrs. |