Main church and famous Diocesan Marian Sanctuary of Pulsano, the center of the community's religious life, the only parish in the town and a place of devotion for the patron saints. Inaugurated in 1858, just outside the town walls (which no longer exist), the main church features a neoclassical three-nave layout with a transept ending on the right in a large chapel and a facade in ocher-toned carparo stone, with six Ionic-style pilasters and a triangular pediment with an inner lunette.
In 1959, the church was hit by an accidental fire, after which the vaults were decorated with colorful faux marble stuccoes, gypsum cornices, and circular images of saints by the Taranto artist Francesco Carrino.
Above the original marble central altar stands, inside a special niche, the statue of the patroness, the Madonna dei Martiri, a gilded wooden statue dating back to at least 1685. To the sides of the presbytery, on the right there is the chapel dedicated to the other patron, San Trifone martyr; on the left there is a large reproduction of the Lourdes grotto made in 1933 at the request of the Pulsano doctor Egidio Delli Ponti following his miraculous healing from a tumor, whose remains rest at the beginning of the left nave. The side walls house the images of the most venerated saints of Salento, made of papier-mâché by the most famous artists from Lecce of the 20th century, including Luigi Guacci, Raffaele Caretta, and the Gallucci brothers. In 1979, by the will of the then parish priest Don Franco Limongelli, a bell tower with 8 bells and a four-faced clock by Giannattasio from Salerno were added. In February 1948, the church was proclaimed Diocesan Marian Sanctuary by the Archbishop of Taranto, Ferdinando Bernardi, and since then it has been a pilgrimage destination during the celebrations of the Madonna of Lourdes (February 11).
