Church of San Paolo Eremita

San Paolo Eremita dates from the late thirteenth century, when Brindisi was a crossroads of pilgrims, crusaders and merchants bound for the East. The devotion to Paul of Thebes (the first Christian hermit, who lived in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd century) is at the heart of its dedication.

There is a poetic consistency in its dedication: a church to the man of the desert in a city from which people set sail for Constantinople and Jerusalem. Most likely the people of Brindisi prayed here before embarking, seeking in the hermit the strength to face the open sea.

Built between 1284 and 1322 with the support of the Angevins, the church is Gothic and Franciscan in plan: a single nave, single-light windows and a side portal with Gothic lines. The local stone masonry records the alterations of later centuries, while the sobriety of the whole is that of a friars’ church.