History

According to the recent studies, the origins of  San Giovanni Rotondo would be very old; in this sense, it seems that San Giovanni Rotondo is derived from ancient settlements, and in  IV-III century BC  the village had been Romanized. The local inhabitants, before the advent of Christianity, seems to practice the cult of Janus, in whose honour they built a temple, called "La Rotonda", due to its circular shape.

Afterwards the area's inhabitants were converted to Christianity, the temple was demolished and in its place  a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist was built. In Roman times the village was called "Bisanum" or "the village of God with two faces (Janus). The village belonged to the Monastery of  “San Giovanni in Lamis”, and the mention of the city with the modern name of "San Giovanni Rotondo" dates back to a document of 1095.

Later, the Emperor Frederick II of Swabia (1194-1250) fortified the town,  and surrounded it by walls and towers. After the Swabians, the city passed to the Angevin, and towards the end of the thirteenth century it was given by the Monastery of San Giovanni in Lamis in emphyteusis to a French feudal lord, T. Helamant. Then, San Giovanni Rotondo  was dominated by the Aragonese and in the sixteenth century it was the center of the struggle between Spain and France for dominance in Italy.

In the Napoleonic age it was ruled by G. Murat (1767-1815) and after the “Risorgimento”, to which the town gave an important contribution, it entered the Kingdom of Italy (1861). In more recent times, certainly its importance  such as  a religious center  grew with the advent (1916) of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968), who remained here until his death (1968); then he was canonized in 2002 under the name of  St. Pio . Today, San Giovanni Rotondo is the second most visited shrine in the world with approximately 7 million annual visitors.