Patron saint festival In 190 days
Saint George, patron of the town of the Conti D'Ayala Valva castle
📅 Every year, on 22 and 23 April
San Giorgio Ionico celebrates Saint George on 22 and 23 April.
There are two stories about the name, and both come from the East. The first tells of the Basilian monks who fled the iconoclast persecution of Leo III, hid in the caves of the Serra Belvedere and brought the cult of Saint George here; the second, of the Albanians who arrived with Skanderbeg, who said the saint protected him.
The town proper was born in the tenth century, when the people of Taranto fled the Saracens and stopped where the mother church now stands; the name appears in documents only in 1522. It lies on the slopes of the Serra Belvedere, the last spur of the Taranto murge — the hills Horace called Aulon. There are 15,676 residents.
The San Giorgio Ionico guide
🎉 Festivals and feasts in San Giorgio Ionico 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near San Giorgio Ionico
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside San Giorgio Ionico, but an easy day trip away.
Castellana Caves 📍 Castellana Grotte · 1.8 km A 3,348-meter karst cave system mapped in 1938, noted for its 60-meter-deep skylight and dazzling white formations. Santuario di Maria Santissima Regina del Mondo 📍 Monopoli · 6.4 km The sanctuary in the Antonelli district of Monopoli, rebuilt as a vow for the town's safety and consecrated in 1950. Rione Monti 📍 Alberobello · 13 km The 1,030 trulli of Alberobello's larger quarter, laid dry-stone to dodge a tax. Trullo Sovrano 📍 Alberobello · 12 km With walls reaching 2.70 metres in thickness, the Trullo Sovrano is the supreme example of dry-stone architecture. Fondazione Museo Pino Pascali 📍 Polignano a Mare · 13 km Puglia's only permanent contemporary art museum, set in a former slaughterhouse overlooking the sea in Polignano. Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate 📍 Fasano · 17 km The Observant friars' church in Fasano, with its dome, onion-spired bell tower and frescoed 1600s cloister.