Church and Confraternity of the Holy Trinity and the Souls in Purgatory

This Confraternity was established in the spirit of the Counter Reformation which followed the Council of Trent. The seat was at first in the Cathedral of St. Agatha where the altar of the Souls decorated with the large painting of the Souls made by Giovan Andrea Coppola of Gallipoli in 1642 is.

Canonically erected in 1660, was composed of only thirty three noble companions of Gallipoli who searched alms in memory of the Holy Souls in the Purgatory. The Confraternity later moved to the church of St. Angel and the building of the new oratory, designed by the architect Carlo Coi was started in 1665.

The single nave church with a presbytery has a choir in the counter façade with an organ pipe. It was made by Lazaro Giovannelli in 1794 and modified by Giuseppe Corrado in 1850.

Inside there are works made by the Spanish sculptor Diego Viglieros, by the stucco workers Diego Basile of Galatina and Francesco Centonze of Gallipoli. Giuseppe del Franco and Liborio Ricci painted the eight large pictures with lunettes that are at the sides of the main body of the church. Michele Lenti and Giuseppe Giannì made the Virgin with Child which is set in the mixtilinear gable of the eighteenth century chief altar.

The two oval-shaped pictures of the Adoration of the Shepherds and of the Baptism of Christ and of the Annunciation in the choir are of the eighteenth century. The lunettes of the intradoses and the four paintings, set in front of the organ pipe, are coeval of the church.

The original majolica floor of the late 18th century and the beautiful ciborium, artistically carved in wood and laminated in gold leaf, are still preserved in the church.

Original text – Elio Pindinelli
English translation by Rocco Merenda