Situated between the present day via Antonio Profilo and vico de Mitri, the Chiesa del SS Salvatore (Church of the Blessed Salvatore) remains one of the testaments to the Greek rite well-known in Mesagne due to the numerous places of worship which conserve a documented record of it. 

The site’s original church, whose dating remains uncertain, was still in use at the end of the 1500s, while there is information regarding its demolition in the second half of the following century, together with other places of worship, in order to source building materials required for the construction of the Chiesa Collegiata, today located in Piazza IV Novembre.

Some documents dating from the end of 1500s highlight the distribution of noble residences and various olive oil presses (tappiti) in the neighbourhood of the SS Salvatore church. One of these documents attests to the presence of an olive oil press of Byzantine origin adjacent to the church, still distinguishable by the guard stones (bollards) rutted by the wheels of the millstone, the result of the practice of ‘re-use’ observable throughout the historical centre today.

The SS. Salvatore, by now documented by local historians at the end of the 1800s, was partially completed at the end of the 1990s during restoration works pertaining to publicly owned real estate situated on via Profilo. In 1996, in fact, after the discovery of wall structures relating to a charnel house and traces of frescoes, following a request by the Amministrazione Comunale (local authority), the Puglian Archaeological Authority conducted two stratigraphic tests. 

Thanks to the initial intervention, started at the site of the frescoed wall and the buildings, three distinct levels of tombs were identified relating to the XII century AD, while another ossuary was discovered during the second tests. 

With the remains available, it is impossible to reconstruct the original development of the church, its internal layout (probably on two levels) and its orientation. Even the conserved parts of the frescoes do not enable us to identify the sacred figures and the story of the images; possibly relating to a pictorial series connected to the earthly life of Jesus until the Transfiguration: beyond the lower extremity, one can see vegetal motifs (lilies?) and a lattice design; probably attributable to the lower part of a throne.