Gallipoli’s Città Vecchia sits on a limestone island west of the newer town, joined to the mainland by a masonry bridge. A bastioned circuit extends about two kilometres around the island: the lower sections survive, while the upper parts were removed in the late nineteenth century. A route along the old walls, known as the Riviera, follows the edge between the lanes and the sea. For the wider setting, see our Gallipoli guide.
At the heart of the old quarter, the Cathedral of Sant’Agata brings the city’s Baroque story into focus. Built between 1629 and 1696 in carparo, its two-tier façade is filled with statues and carved detail. Inside, a Latin-cross plan opens into three aisles, with paintings by Giovanni Andrea Coppola and Nicola Malinconico, a polychrome marble high altar, and a carved wooden choir and pulpit. The cathedral is an active place of worship, so check with the parish about visiting conditions and avoid interrupting services. To see another expression of Salento’s carved stone Baroque, compare it with Santa Croce in Lecce.
Below the palazzi, the underground oil mills show how the port’s history reached into the rock beneath the streets. The Palazzo Granafei rooms are cut into local carparo, with crushing and pressing spaces, olive storage and collection wells. Oil travelled from Gallipoli by sea, supplying lighting and other industrial uses, including wool carding. A guided visit with Associazione Gallipoli Nostra brings the equipment and working sequence together: the stone below street level belongs to the same commercial story as the harbour above.
Near the bridge, the Fontana Greca pairs mythological reliefs with a name that has outlasted its old dating. The Ministry of Culture’s catalog notes that there is no archival record of its construction and favors an attribution to the second half of the sixteenth century, rather than the traditional ancient-Greek story. The harbour and wall-side Riviera complete the island’s relationship with the sea. Spiaggia della Purità lies below the historic-centre walls, placing a small beach beside a walk through fortifications and dense streets.
