In the heart of the city stands one of the most important churches for the Gallipoli people, both from a religious and artistic point of view: the solemn Cathedral dedicated to St. Agatha, whose construction began exactly in 1629, in the Baroque period.
The main client of the Cathedral of Gallipoli was the doctor Giacomo Lazzari who entrusted the construction of the church to local architects Francesco Bischettini and Scipione Lachibari, who implemented the project by the architect Giovan Bernardino Genuino.
The main façade of the church, adorned in Lecce stone, presents the decorative richness typical of the period between the 17th and 18th centuries, when the work of the great architect-sculptures Giuseppe Zimbalo prevailed in Salento, to whom all the local artists of epoch referred. The statues on the front, also made of Lecce stone, depict Sant’Agata, San Fausto, San Sebastiano, Santa Marina and Santa Teresa d’Avila.