Patron saint festival In 253 days
Saint John the Baptist, patron of the land of the Strait of Messina
📅 Every year, on 24 June
Villa San Giovanni celebrates Saint John the Baptist on 24 June.
In 1743 the plague arrived from Messina, and the village of Fossa — where the centre of Villa stands today — was picked as the scapegoat. The contagion had come in with a greatcoat handed over as payment to two smugglers; the men of Reggio sent armed parties, and the next day burned with artillery the houses, the animals, the boats, the trees, the cane brakes and even the church. The people of Fossa were left on the beach of Pezzo for days with no help: from the fief came a few broad beans and one ox, and the only real pity was that of the captain of a boat from Tropea, who unloaded his cargo of onions for them. The plague reached Reggio all the same.
The town was born half a century later, and it was born at the will of a private man: in 1791 Rocco Antonio Caracciolo, landowner and silk manufacturer, obtained from King Ferdinand IV the detachment of Fossa, Pezzo, Cannitello, Piale and Acciarello from the università of Fiumara di Muro and their union into a single municipality, Villa San Giovanni. At Punta Pezzo, Calabria and Sicily are closer than at any other point: this was the Romans' Trajectum Siciliae, and it is still the crossing to the island.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Villa San Giovanni 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Villa San Giovanni
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Villa San Giovanni, but an easy day trip away.
chiesa dei Santi Gervasio e Protasio 📍 Belluno · 12 km A thirteenth-century church in Belluno divided in two by a wall, between the faithful and the enclosed nuns. basilica cattedrale di San Martino 📍 Belluno · 14 km Belluno's cathedral, rebuilt by Tullio Lombardo in the sixteenth century, with Juvarra's bell tower. chiesa di San Rocco 📍 Belluno · 14 km Belluno's votive church, born of the plague of 1530, in Castellavazzo stone, with a canvas by Gaspare Diziani. chiesa di Santo Stefano 📍 Belluno · 14 km The Servites' Gothic church in Belluno, in white and red stone, with Brustolon's angels and a 24-hour clock. chiesa di Sant'Aronne 📍 Belluno · 16 km The parish church of Cusighe, in Belluno, with an altarpiece by Girolamo Denti and a Last Supper by Paris Bordon. chiesa di San Liberale 📍 Belluno · 16 km A very old little church on the hill of Pedeserva, in Belluno, with a stone-slab roof and a crypt.