History
Monte Sant'Angelo developed from the fifth century in relation to the cult of the Archangel Michael, who, according to the tradition, appeared in a cave. The small town is located on a spur of the Gargano with its characteristic medieval district called "Junno", considered the oldest part of the town.
The importance of “Monte Sant’Angelo” is dependent on the Shrine of St. Michael the Archangel, one of the oldest places of worship in Christendom, where, from the Mille until the thirteenth century, developed a school of sculptors whose Master was the archdeacon "Acceptus", who, according to critics, invented a new formal language ("Acceptus" was a sculptor of the Apulia of the eleventh century, of the early Romanesque Age, many famous; in addition to work in Monte Sant'Angelo between 1039 and 1041, he made some works also in the Cathedral of Canosa, where he carved the pulpit, adorned by capitals on pillars, and a lectern supported by an eagle. We know that he was named "Acceptus," and he called himself "Archdeacon").
The history of Monte Sant'Angelo began in the late fifth century AD, when it was built the church dedicated to the archangel Michael appeared to the Bishop of Siponto. The shrine, in the mid-seventh century AD, began to gravitate into the orbit of the Lombards of Benevento; in fact, Grimoaldo (died in 687), Duke of Benevento, rushed to defend the shrine in the Gargano by the Byzantines attack. This episode was the beginning of the link between the Lombards and St. Michael. In fact, they considered him their national saint, depicting his image on the shields and coins.
Between the second half of the thirteenth century and early decades of 14th century, the Shrine of “San Michele Arcangelo” suffered a massive work of transformation, promoted and built by the Angevin kings, who had it under their special protection. By the will of Charles I of Anjou (1226-1285), the connection between the cave and the town was made easier by broadening and extending the stairs of some ramps in part already exists. Charles I was also responsible for building, begun in 1274, the great bell tower, by Giordano and Maraldo of Monte Sant'Angelo (13th century). Today the town is the most important religious center of the Gargano, because the Shrine records an increasing number of believers of all social backgrounds.
Etymology
However, we can say that the mountain, inaccessible for several centuries, was widely known in antiquity by some writers, historians, geographers and poets with the simple name "Mons Garganus" and also "Promontorium Garganum”. Of it spoke to us Strabo [58-25 BC] (Geografia., Books VI-XI), Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), Virgil [70-19 BC] (Aeneid, XI, 247), Horace [65-27 BC] (Odes, IX). If the etymology of the "modern" Monte Sant'Angelo is clear (because it simply means "the mountain dedicated to the Archangel Michael”), the origin of the name of the ancient “Mons Garganus” is less clear . In the nineteenth century the term "Gargano" was generally referred to the cult of Janus: "[...] The ‘Gargano’, therefore, in itself has the brand of its classical antiquity, because its etymology derives from ‘Javan’, then translated in ‘Janus’, and (...) which so was said ‘Gargano’ [...]” (See Giuseppe de Leonardis, “Ricerche Etimologiche intorno al Gargano” in “Monografia Generale del Promontorio Gargano” [“Etymological Researchs about the Gargano” in “The General Monographs of the Gargano Promontory”], T. Pansini , 1858: 25).
However, contemporary studies have proposed a very interesting hypothesis. In this sense, one of the most detailed studies is that of Marco Trotta, who points out by the name of "Gargano" "[...] the presence of even a pre-Greek god, a giant who had a cult in the basin of Mediterranean and Western regions of France, best known because he was often portrayed as the incarnation of Hercules. (...) His image suggests a substrate that refers to a god worshiped by the Neolithic Age, as evidenced by the same name "Garganus," which , in Indo-European root "gar-", refers to terms such as ‘throat’ , ‘sinkhole water’, but also ‘pile of stones’; while, for the termination '-Ganus', the "Gargano" refers to an old name or adjective in person [...] ". In addition, this mythical "Garganus" was endowed with gigantic strength and his powerful figure, in practice, literally identified with the mythical "Hercules", whose characteristic was precisely the boundless strength.
There is even a literary "parallel" tradition to the Hercules’ exploits, where the giant Gargano “made the somatic Hercules’ characters, and he embodied and 'replace' the Greek hero in his most famous and well known exploits. " Therefore, according to recent studies, the ancient "Mons Garganus" identifies the idea of a powerful creature with Herculean strength; by metaphor we could say that “Gargano” is “Hercules”. As well as "Gargano", the giant was known with very similar names, “which are essentially philological variants. In fact, the word "Garganus" often reappears as "Caranus", "Recaranus", "Trecaranus" and "Tricaranus," and as "Gargan-tua" in France. In fact, Mario Trotta affirms that Servius (4th -5th century AD] in his commentary on Virgil's Aeneid (VIII, 203), said that “all those with great power in ancient times were called ‘Hercules’.” ‘Tricaranus’, for example, was “a giant shepherd called Hercules, because he exceeded all other in appearance and courage” (On this fascinating hypothesis about the meaning of the “Gargano”, see the fundamental study of Marco Trotta, "“Di Gargano il Monte porta il nome. Un Itinerario Medievale”, in “Culti e Santuari di San Michele nell'Europa Medievale”, a cura di Pierre Bouet, Giorgio Otranto, André Vauchez, Edipuglia, 2007, pp. 209-212.
For the references to Gargantua and all the French tradition, see pp. 215 ff., where it is said that "[...] the French tradition back to Gargan or Gargantua the name of ‘Monte Gargano’, a common name to many mountains of France and Italy. François Bouquelot indicates, among others, a ‘Mont Gargan’ (or ‘Mont Gargant’) not far from Rouen, which received the name of ‘Mont-Saint-Michel’ and ‘Mont-Saint-Ange’. Henri Dontenville recalled that the original name of Mont-Saint-Michel is ‘Mont Gargan’ or ‘Mont de Gargan’ (...) Even if indirectly, in the first half of the sixteenth century, the close relationship between the Britain Monte Gargano and Monte Gargano in Apulia is confirmed by the 'Croniques gargantuines', where the narrator of 'Admirabiles', telling the route of Grant Gosier and Gallemelle, Gargantua’s parents, seems to identify the mountain of Apulia the starting point of their journey [...] ").