Patron saint festival In 226 days
Maria SS. di Pietrasanta, patron of San Giovanni a Piro
📅 Every year, on the Monday after the last Sunday of May
San Giovanni a Piro celebrates Maria SS. di Pietrasanta on the Monday after the last Sunday of May.
San Giovanni a Piro has 3,818 inhabitants on a hill of the southern Cilento, with the two hamlets of Bosco and Scario. In the Riparo del Molare the jawbone of a four-year-old Neanderthal child was found; the finds are kept in the museum at Scario, which is called «A hundred thousand years before Scario». The harbour, at the foot of the village, perhaps owes its name to the Greek skariòs, a small shipyard.
This coast was exposed: in 915 pirates landed at the harbour of the Olivo and sacked Scario, and in 1534 Barbarossa arrived, followed shortly after by his successor Dragut; the little town stayed deserted for more than a century, until some fishermen, backed by the Carafa counts of Policastro, brought it back to life. In August 1846 a sailing ship caught in a storm found shelter here: the captain had promised to leave a statue of the Madonna in the first safe port, and ever since the Virgin goes out each year in a procession by sea.
The San Giovanni a Piro guide
🎉 Festivals and feasts in San Giovanni a Piro 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near San Giovanni a Piro
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside San Giovanni a Piro, but an easy day trip away.
Insigne collegiata parrocchiale di Santa Maria Maggiore 📍 Guglionesi · 12 km Beneath the late Baroque, a 12th-century crypt with two surviving frescoes. Torre di Petacciato 📍 Petacciato · 12 km A coastal tower of 1568, split in two by a landslide in 1777. Old Termoli 📍 Termoli · 15 km A walled Adriatic promontory featuring an 11th-century castle, a Romanesque cathedral, and historic wooden trabucchi. chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta 📍 Guardialfiera · 17 km A Holy Door that opens every year, except when it is a Jubilee. Riserva naturale regionale Marina di Vasto 📍 Vasto · 16 km Three kilometres of dunes and wetlands between Vasto and San Salvo, where the Kentish plover nests. cattedrale di Santa Maria della Purificazione 📍 Termoli · 19 km Dragons and griffins on the front, and a crypt with a Romanesque mosaic floor.