The presence of rural communities from the Roman and Late Antique periods close to an important road constitutes the context in which, not before the end of the 5th century, the project for the construction of a building of Christian worship with an independent baptistery, a complex of which remains, as the only surviving evidence, the small building with a circular plan, the so-called "Rotunda of San Giovanni Battista”, from which the name of the town of San Giovanni Rotondo itself also derives.
The church of San Giovanni is structurally divided into two distinct bodies: the Rotonda itself, i.e. the early medieval baptistery, and the Nave, a rectangular body subsequently attached to the baptistery, probably starting from the 12th century; they are present in both bodies medieval frescoes, for which it is possible to identify two – and in some areas three – successive phases: 14th – 15th – 16th century. The Rotunda is connected to the hall via an arch, clearly widened in the late medieval period.
The building has, among other things, been the subject of controversial interpretations over time; a local tradition, not based on historical but merely mythographic data, believed it to be a temple dedicated to Janus, subsequently transformed; the hypothesis that it was a baptistery - already suggested before the start of the systematic research which was only recently concluded - as well as from the particular conformation, also from the very dedication with which the building has reached the present day, received definitive confirmation in 'October 2014, when a stratigraphic survey conducted inside the Rotonda made it possible to fully highlight the remains of a baptismal font with an original shape that cannot be clearly reconstructed, subsequently modified so as to make it take on a semicircular shape; it was unfortunately damaged by the excavation of a tomb, dated with the radiocarbon method to the early fifteenth century.
The new archaeological data, having offered solid support to the hypotheses formulated in the past on an intuitive basis, therefore allow us to further enrich the picture of Apulian religious presences in rural areas, which thickened precisely in the late fifth century. Last but not least, in terms of importance, was the discovery of interesting medieval pictorial cycles within the entire building. The wall paintings of St. John the Baptist also represent a unicum in the Gargano reference panorama. In the dome of the Rotonda there unfolds a pictorial cycle, of undoubted Umbrian ancestry even if mediated by a Neapolitan-based commissioning program, concerning the corporal works of mercy performed by Flagellanti, which currently represents a unicum in the medieval artistic panorama of southern Italy.
Three main moments can be distinguished in the history of pictorial decoration, which for centuries entirely covered the interior of the church, presenting the faithful with images of individual saints and scenes taken from the Gospels. The oldest paintings, unfortunately poorly readable, they date back to the 13th century, while the most important decorative phase dates back to the 14th century, which seems to have involved the entire construction and which is evidently to be linked to the Gothic renovation of the nave; they date back to the early fifteenth centuryinstead, some panels visible on the counterfaçade and in the Rotunda.
Although fragmentary and incomplete, the frescoes that have resurfaced in the church of San Giovanni are of great cultural interest because, in addition to testifying to the ancient events of the building, they enrich the horizon of medieval painting of the Capitanata between the 13th and 15th centuries. The central band of the dome is divided into large squares, in the one opposite the access room you can see a monumental figure seated on a throne accompanied by angels holding cartouches; the white hair and beard, the nimbus crucigero and the open book in the left hand with the words EGO SUM A(l)FA ET…, identify him as the Ancient of Days (according to the vision of the prophet Daniel): this subject is rather rare in Puglia and is therefore of great interest. In the upper part of the cap there are four frescoes depicting the Tetramorph (i.e. the four winged animals of the apocalyptic vision which are symbolically associated with the four evangelists): the best preserved one is the man, symbol of the evangelist Matthew. The formal characters suggest a date between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century.
The remaining panels, created between the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth century, show narrative scenes framed by an elegant frame that simulates marble inlays. The scenes, of monumental format, appear refined and full of descriptive details that denote a strong realistic taste. Therefore, a connection with the pilgrimage flows that reached the Gargano via the internal route cannot be ruled out, as confirmed by the presence of both the depiction of St. James the Greater and details (bordons, pouches and the unmistakable shell of St. James) which qualify various characters who appear in the scenes as pilgrims. The hagiographic subject developed in the scenes is to be brought back to the putting into practice of the corporal works of mercy, the subject of the aforementioned cycle.
Along the median strip of the left wall of the nave there are six large panels, framed by frames that simulate marble inlays that are completely different from those of the rotunda and can be attributed to other workers in a different historical moment. They depict the final episodes of the Passion of Christ, from the ascent to Calvary to the resurrection. The lower register, however, is decorated with a velaria motif (i.e. one that imitates a draped embroidered fabric).
Other individual panels with figures of saints were also placed on the curved walls that connect the rotunda to the longitudinal body; in particular the restoration saved an effigy of Saint Anthony the Abbot.
The counter-façade appears structurally uneven, evidently due to multiple interventions which involved the creation of paintings in different periods. The late Gothic scene of the Nativity stands out for its elegance, while the Annunciation and the Trinity date back to the 15th century. The panel with Saint Lucia also belongs to the same period, created on the transversal arch, which surrounds the acute barrel vault.
The iconographic solution chosen for the Trinity is of particular interest. The white-robed and white-haired figure of the Eternal sits in Majesty with his right hand blessing and his left holding the sealed book. On the single bust are grafted two heads with a crossed halo, in the center that of the Father, on the left that of the young Son, while the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove is found on the right. To signify the unity of the three divine persons, already in In the 1628th century, an iconographic formula spread which presents a single figure with three heads or three faces (vultustrifrons). Condemned in the XNUMXth century at the Council of Trent, these images were judged heretical by Urban VIII in XNUMX.
