San Giovanni Rotondo

San Giovanni Rotondo stands on the Gargano heights beneath Monte Calvo. Its name comes from a small round baptistery dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, part of an early Christian complex near an old road. A nave was added to the circular building in the Middle Ages, and frescoes painted over succeeding centuries adorned its walls. The settlement grew around this religious landmark, between the uplands of Gargano and the plains of Apulia.