Description
The Casa del Turista is a building in Brindisi's old town that owes its name to the tourist board once based here. It is part of a very old block: in the Middle Ages the church and guesthouse of the Knights of Saint John stood here.
The detail to look for is on the entrance arch: the keystone bears the Maltese cross, the symbol of the Knights of Saint John, the order that later took its name from Malta itself.
According to tradition, before the Knights of Saint John the block belonged to the Templars. In Brindisi, though, the memory of the Templars should be taken with caution: even the name of the Portico of the Knights Templar, in Piazza Duomo, comes from 18th-century scholarship, which linked it to the remains of a church of the Knights of Saint John.
The detail to look for is on the entrance arch: the keystone bears the Maltese cross, the symbol of the Knights of Saint John, the order that later took its name from Malta itself.
According to tradition, before the Knights of Saint John the block belonged to the Templars. In Brindisi, though, the memory of the Templars should be taken with caution: even the name of the Portico of the Knights Templar, in Piazza Duomo, comes from 18th-century scholarship, which linked it to the remains of a church of the Knights of Saint John.