The patron saint of Palata is Saint Roch, celebrated on 16 August, in the church dedicated to him, which was part of a Franciscan complex now destroyed due to the 1556 Turkish invasion: in the fire, the Anagni Crucifix, donated to Ottavio Ionata, was also lost. The church, restored in 1890 and again in 1945 after war damage, is today in the 18th-century style, with a stone architraved portal and a spired bell tower.
Until the 17th century, a hamlet of Norman origins called Santa Giusta survived, later abandoned after the great Ottoman attack. Damaged by earthquakes, the destructive one of 1456, known as «Gradina», and then that of 1663, Palata's territory was repopulated by Slavic communities fleeing the Ottoman Empire, the same phenomenon that affected other Molise coastal municipalities around Termoli: in 1531, these populations rebuilt the nearly abandoned village, whose symbol became the church of Santa Maria La Nova. Of the medieval centre, destroyed by the earthquake, only a few houses remain today, along with the round tower of the ducal palace, next to the parish church.
