The Church of Santa Maria del Casale, not far from where Brindisi Airport is currently located, is a very important place of worship in the history of Puglia. It was built in the 13th century in Romanesque-Gothic style and declared a national monument in 1875. As tradition has it, it was erected at the place where St. Francis of Assisi supposedly prayed on his return from the Holy Land.
Because of its location on the route of the pilgrims' journey to the Middle East, departing from the nearby port of Brindisi, the church is linked to the events of the famous Order of the Knights Templar as, in 1310, it was used as a chancery for the trial of the Templar order in the Kingdom of Sicily. The knights tried there were declared heretics and sentenced to death, leading to the final suppression of the order.