Brindisi - Chiesa di San Benedetto

Settlers, who did trade with Greece, lived here already during the Bronze Age. After the Punic Wars it became a major center of Roman naval power and maritime trade. After the decline of the Roman Empire Brindisi was conquered by Ostrogoths, and reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. In 674 it was destroyed by the Lombards led by Romuald I of Benevento, It was rebuilt and within the 9th century. It was under Saracen rule from 836 to 868, when it was retaken by the Byantines. In 1070, it was conquered by the Normans, led by Robert Guiskard.

Brindisi flourished under the Staufer and developed into a privileged port for the Holy Land during the period of Crusades. It was an Episcopal See and a new cathedral was constructed, in which the wedding of Norman Prince Roger III of Sicily and Irene Angelina, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos took place.

Emperor Frederick II and Isabella of Brienne embarked from the port of Brindisi in 1228 for the Sixth Crusade.

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A monastery may have existed here already within the 10th century.

During the 18th century, the old monastery, erected on three sides of the medieval cloister, was abandoned for the construction of the new one. The presence of the Benedictines ended in 1866 when, as a consequence of a suppressive measure, the monks had to leave Brindisi, so it became a parish church.