Tempio di San Giovanni al Sepolcro

Brindisi's circular church of San Giovanni al Sepolcro is a twelfth-century rotunda associated with the canons of the Holy Sepulchre. Its plan recalls Jerusalem's Anastasis. Roman columns, medieval fresco fragments and a Roman house floor visible beneath the pavement bring together different layers of the city's history.

Why it matters

The rotunda reflects Brindisi's connection with the crusading era and its role as an Adriatic port. The canons of the Holy Sepulchre are documented in Brindisi from about 1126, and papal records from 1128 onward confirm their possession of the church. Its circular plan belongs to a broader group of churches modelled on the Anastasis, the rotunda built around Christ's tomb in Jerusalem. The Roman domus beneath the pavement adds an earlier layer to the church's medieval history.

What to notice

Eight columns of cipollino marble and granite support the interior ambulatory; several were reused from Roman buildings. The portal rests on carved lions and has capitals with animal forms and reliefs. Fragments of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century frescoes, including saints and a Deposition, survive inside. A circular opening in the pavement reveals part of the Roman domus below.

Context and history

Local tradition links the foundation to Bohemond's return from the First Crusade, though the building is generally dated to the early twelfth century. The municipal description presents it as a faithful replica of the Anastasis. In 1489, after Pope Innocent VIII suppressed the order of the Holy Sepulchre, its goods passed to the Hospitallers, the Knights of San Giovanni, giving the church its present name.

An earthquake in 1761 brought down the roof and destroyed much of the painted surface. A mid-nineteenth-century restoration stabilised the rotunda. From 1850 to 1955, the building housed Brindisi's civic museum; later excavations exposed the Roman domus floor beneath the church.