Cathedral of Saint Agatha in Gallipoli, 1629– 1650

Seven years after the Spaniard Gonzalo de Rueda (1580–1650) was appointed Bishop of Gallipoli in 1622, he ordered the complete demolition of the city’s cathedral, a building described by travelers as small, indecent, and nearly a ruin (Ravenna 1836, 317–18). The construction of the new cathedral was part of de Rueda’s renovation project for the dioceses of Gallipoli, where the physical building and the lay and religious communities were meant to be aligned with the mandates of the post-Tridentine Church