UNESCO World Heritage Site since June 2011, the Shrine of St. Michael has its origin,according to tradition, in 490, year of the first apparition of the Archangel Micael in Gargano. From 650, the Gargano area, in which stood the sanctuary, it became part of the domains Lombard, directly subject to the Duchy of Benevento. The German people harbored a special veneration for the archangel Michael, they found in him the warrior virtues once worshiped of Germanic god Odin, and as early as the seventh century the sanctuary considered the national shrine of the Lombards. The Shrine of St. Michael soon became the main center of worship the entire West, exemplar for all the others. The sanctuary was the subject of the patronage of the Dukes of Benevento and the kings installed in Pavia, who promoted numerous refurbishment to facilitate access of the pilgrims to the cave. Shrine of St. Michael became a major pilgrimage sites in Christendom, stage of the variant “Via Francigena” now called “Via Sacra Langobardorum”, that led to the Holy Land. The Sanctuary is in fact one of the three major Europeans places of worship dedicated to St Michael, together with the Sacra of San Michele in Val di Susa, and Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy. The three shrines are located 1000 kilometers away from each other, aligned along a straight line, extended as the crow flies, leads to Jerusalem. After the fall of the Kingdom Lombard (774), the Sanctuary retained its important function in the Langobardia Minor, again as part of the Duchy of Benevento, who in the same year became principality. When Benevento also fell in the eleventh century, first Normans, then the Swabians and Angevins took care of the Santuary, and intervened further on the structure of the church, changing the top and adding new decorations. Over the centuries, millions of pilgrims have visited this place; among them, several popes (Gelasius I, Leo IX, Pope Urban II, Alexander III, Gregory X, Pope Celestine V, Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II) and kings (Ludwig II, Otto III, Henry II, Matilda of Canossa, Charles d ‘ Anjou, Alfonso of Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic). Even St. Francis of Assisi visited the Santuary of St. Michael, but he didn’t feel worthy to enter. He stopped et the entrance, kissed the ground and engraved on the stone the sign of the cross “T” (Tau).

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