Dating and elevation
It overlooks Via Ottavio Scalfo (corner via Siciliani), with a white and linear façade, marked by two pilasters and embellished only by the single poly-lobed window in axis with the main portal. Started in the late Baroque period in 1776, it was completed after just six years, in 1782, as stated on the architrave of the same portal: ANNO DNI MDCCLXXXII.
It is annexed to the female orphanage-boarding school, the Immaculate Institute, which was, in the past, the work of assistance and education for the 'honest and poor girls of Galatina'. This institution, built between 1745 and 1759, was commissioned and established by the canon Ottavio Scalfo, together with the small annexed church.
In the will written before his death in 1759, the canon Scalfo had tied all his assets in favor of the Piarists, with the obligation to establish a 'public college'.
And if this were not possible, all the assets and their income would have to be devolved for the foundation of a female 'conservatory'. Finally, in 1776, 17 years after his death, the huge patrimony is divided between the legitimate heirs and the establishment, which will take the name of the Immaculate Institute, to which 15,000 ducats were assigned.
With the composition of the dispute by the Royal Chamber of St. Clare of Naples, in 1776, and the allocation of the sums, a commission is established for the management of the same. This provides for the procurement and execution of the project and the works. The design of the building and the church is written by Felice de Palma, of Alessano; and the realization of the works is carried out by the 'mastro fabbricatore' Giuseppe Casciaro, from Galatina, and his son-in-law.
Interior and frescoes
The interior of the small church consists of a single oval-shaped hall, with a lunette-like sail cover, illuminated by several small windows. On the longer sides there are two paintings with the Christ that holds the keys to St. Peter.
Inside the Institute there are several other works including: the Virgin of Graces, a wooden statue of Neapolitan origin, eighteenth century, and the great altarpiece of the Virgin with Child and Angels, also this eighteenth-century, almost certainly by Serafino Elmo
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