Position: San Francesco
Initially called Santa Maria della Sanità, it was the prestigious Liparulo family who built the church in 1582, also contributing to the construction of the nearby tower. Both buildings were later annexed to the convent currently occupied by the Minimi Fathers. The statue of San Francesco di Paola dominates the spacious semicircular churchyard, at the base of a ramp leading to the church. Its sacred entrance features a door carved in black tuff, crowned by a broken round pediment, framed by a tuff decoration.
Originally a defense tower, the Liparulo tower was transformed into a bell tower and resisted the Saracen invasion of 1558.
The church of the Madonna della Salute has a single nave, characterized by an apse made up of three arches. The altar, dating back to the 18th century and made of polychrome marble, is surrounded by a balustrade also in marble. At the center of the gallery is the depiction of the Madonna della Salute, enclosed in a suggestive niche. The coat of arms of Liparulo and the commemorative epigraph of the foundation of the church are sculpted on the base of the altar. The walls of the basin host two impressive paintings depicting the Assumption and the Expulsion of the moneylenders from the temple.
Two further paintings, dedicated to Saint Lucia and Saint Catherine, are placed on the sides of the niche. The Chapel of San Francesco houses a seventeenth-century altar in polychrome marble, accompanied by the painting depicting the saint to whom it is dedicated. Inside the altar are kept the relics of the martyrs of Otranto, a city that suffered the attack and devastation of the Turks in the reign of Ferrante I. Massa Lubrense contributed to the liberation by sending men on 10 September 1481. On the urn containing the relics the inscription “Martyrs Hydruntini MDLXXXIII” is engraved.
In front of the Chapel of San Francesco there is another altar dedicated to San Onofrio and San Francesco, with a frame dating back to 1600. The walls of the church have three altars on each side. An interesting detail in the Madonna della Salute church and sacristy is the 18th-century majolica floor, which joins a collection of other works of art, including a 15th-century wooden statue of the Virgin.
