In the church of San Rocco, which in 1530 was the chapel of the lordly palace, there is a loggia next to the sacristy: it let the nobles follow mass without mixing with the rest of the town.
The upper village, Pianisi, was abandoned in the fifteenth century after a natural disaster: people came down onto the abbey's land, and the place took the name Sant'Elia a Pianisi. In the Franciscan convent, around 1901, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina came to study: he had been sent for the mountain air. To the left of the San Rocco portal is a stone carved with little fishes, the sign of the early Christians. The town emptied in the later twentieth century; today there are 1,910 residents.
castello di Pianisi
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Next up: Saint Elijah the Prophet, patron of a town where the young Padre Pio once lived, Tuesday 20 July
Nearest airport: Napoli Capodichino, 95 km away
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📅 Every year, on 20 July
Sant'Elia a Pianisi celebrates Saint Elijah the Prophet on 20 July; the town was born from the merger of the villages of Sant'Elia and Pianisi after the destruction of the local castle in 1528, and in the Capuchin friary the future Saint Pio of Pietrelcina lived for nearly four years as a young friar.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Sant'Elia a Pianisi, but an easy day trip away.
