The Church is a very important Romanesque monument located in the heart of the historic centre of the city of Brindisi. It testifies to the deep cultural and artistic relations between Brindisi and the Holy Land. Indeed, from antiquity until the end of the Middle Ages, the city of Brindisi played a decisive role in linking East and West as its port, shaped like a stag's head, was considered among the safest in the Mediterranean.
Among other things, the two most important routes for commercial and military travel in antiquity both led to and left from Brindisi: the Appian Way and the Trajan Way, later the Via Francigena of the South. The port was the point of departure to the Middle East for ships used by the knights of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre to conquer the Holy Land during the Crusades.