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  Visit
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  Discover the
  Orchids of
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  Sant'Egidio

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  Saint Mary of Pulsano

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  Holy Mountain

Sant'Egidio

Monument of primary importance in the social-economic life of the Gargano and in the history itself of the different religious and monastic destinies in Apulia during the Middle Ages.

In fact, trying to trace a historical profile of the Hamlets, of the University and the founded cities in the Daunia in late middle age epoch and the will to sketch out the birth of the different sites and Benedictine’s settlements, you can not ignore the Hamlet of Saint Egidio that constitute a well precise “coordination” in the reticulated geo-history of the Promontory of the Gargano.

Today of the Hamlet are only remained just visible traces of the ancient living and the dropped walls of the ancient church that once a time was counted among the most representative monuments of art and the holy architecture of the Middle Ages.

Originally the church was a basilica project with an only nave, with a long ness of m. 28, and large n.6.50 and a highness of mt. 7. In his internal there were three arches at Greece shape, instead others at Gothic shape, they crossed to the vertex to obtain a marvellous dome.

Precious frescos enriched the outside walls. In the XVIII century these paintings were careless covered by plaster, as at the times was used, leaving only some of them discovered and from which today does not remain then fragments of the apses part of the church.

For the celebration of the holy rituals there were a lot of altars, dedicated to Saint Egidio, to the Holy Trinity, to the Virgin (major altar). On the front, which perspectives ended at a straight corner, was opened a magnificent portal (refined engraved with motifs and painting) surmounted by a rectangular lunette, which in origin probably contained a lot of epigraphic. More up a rose window, with the Gothic columns at rays, embellished the same facade.

The church was restored more times and remained open for the cult until the end of the XIX century.

The inhabitants of San Giovanni Rotondo during the Easter festivities went in procession to the temple of the dropped Hamlet for celebrating the holy rites and for releasing superstitions and votes, conceding to the interminable revels and rural feasts. During this period, the old maids of San Giovanni, with a picturesque and private pilgrimage, also went to Saint Egidio, walking on naked feet nearly three km on the dusty and on a road full with stones and once they arrived deposed their stockings behind the major altar of the church, in sign of ”ex vote pro nuptiis”.

All this was prohibited with a decree of the Cardinal Vincenzo Maria Orsini (Pope Benedict XIII) in 1776. The interdict was not observed and the people, in fact, continued to celebrate rites and different uses.