The arrangement of the small square at the entrance to the main street was carried out for celebrate the centenary of Padre Pio's coming to San Giovanni Rotondo (28 July 1916).
The route starts from Largo 28 Luglio 1916, so called to commemorate the beginning of Padre Pio's stay in San Giovanni Rotondo.
July 28, 1916 was the year in which Padre Pio arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo. Precisely for this reason, on 28 July 2017, at the end of the jubilee year, announced to celebrate the first centenary of the Saint's arrival in the country, a tree was planted and blessed in the center of the piazza located between Corso Umberto I and Piazza Europa , which from the same day was called “Largo 28 July 1916".
Stone seats have been set up under the tree to allow people to stop and encourage the memory of the event which changed the course of the history of the local community.
This initiative aims to keep alive the memory of the spiritual experience lived by Lucia Fiorentino from San Giovanno, one of Padre Pio's first spiritual daughters.
«I saw in the vision – he writes in one of his memoirs - a tree of immense size in the atrium of our Capuchin Convent and I heard a voice telling me: “This is the symbol of a soul that is now far away and will come here; will do a lot of good in this country' "
This soul, continues Lucia Fiorentino, «it will be strong and well rooted like this tree and all the souls that come - both from here and from far away - if they take refuge in the shade of this tree, they will be freed from evil (that is, those who will come to this worthy priest for light and find forgiveness and remedy for one's sins). If they humble themselves, they will receive advice and fruits of eternal life from this worthy priest. And woe to those who despise his advice, his way of acting, the Lord will punish them severely in this life and in the next. His mission will extend throughout the world and many will come to take refuge in the shade of this mystical tree to receive the fruits of grace and forgiveness.».
At the time of the "vision" Lucia Fiorentino did not yet know Padre Pio; subsequently, in 1923, with an internal locution it was revealed to her that the tree planted in the convent symbolized Padre Pio, who came from afar and was rooted in the Convent by the will of God.
The passage from a letter from Saint Pius, carved on the monument, is significant, in which the Saint refers to the people of Saint John with the epithet "generous" to gratitude and warning for posterity.