Brindisi - San Giovanni al Sepolcro

Settlers, who did trade with Greece, lived here already during the Bronze Age. After the Punic Wars, it became a major center of Roman naval power and maritime trade. After the decline of the Roman Empire Brindisi was conquered by Ostrogoths, and reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. In 674 it was destroyed by the Lombards led by Romuald I of Benevento, It was rebuilt and within the 9th century. It was under the Saracen rule from 836 to 868, when it was retaken by the Byzantines. In 1070, it was conquered by the Normans, led by Robert Guiskard.

Brindisi flourished under the Staufer and developed into a privileged port for the Holy Land during the period of the Crusades. It was an Episcopal See and a new cathedral was constructed, in which the wedding of Norman Prince Roger III of Sicily and Irene Angelina, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos took place.

Emperor Frederick II and Isabella of Brienne embarked from the port of Brindisi in 1228 for the Sixth Crusade.
The round-shaped church was built by the Templars on their return from the Holy Land in 11C. Traditions know, that it was erected at the behest of Norman prince Bohemond.

It recalls the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This was a place of pilgrimage, controlled by the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulcher. In fact, for those who arrived, the building was an advance of that of Jerusalem while for those who returned, a memory.

In 1489 Pope Innocent VIII declared the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulcher to be extinct and decreed that its assets be transferred to the Order of the Hospital of San Giovanni in Jerusalem and Rhodes.

In 1761 an earthquake destroyed most of Brindisi, the Church of San Giovanni al Sepolcro did not collapse but suffered considerable damage. This led to a long decay and the loss of 80% of the frescoed surface, until the restoration in the mid-nineteenth century which led it to serve as the temporary seat of the Civic Museum from 1850 to 1955. Excavations inside the building found ancient remains from the Roman era, including the floor of a Roman domus.

The portal of the rotunda church is decorated with fine stone carvings.

An elephant and a mahout (sitting in the right position). The person on the elephant's back is blowing a horn. Looks like a hunting scene in the Indian wilderness.

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