The picturesque town of Pietrelcina is a small village in the Apennine Mountains of Campania. Already a beautiful sight, the town now attracts throngs of faithful Catholics worshipping Saint Pio, one of the most famous saints of the 20th century. Also known as Padre Pio (Father Pio), he gained global celebrity for claiming to exhibit stigmata and supernatural abilities such as communicating with angels, receiving visions, and performing miracles. Many attractions in the town are dedicated to the mystic saint, who was born and raised in Pietrelcina before taking the Franciscan habit and becoming a friar. Padre Pio was born as Francesco Forgione in 1887 in a poor and deeply religious family of farmers, and soon decided that he would dedicate his whole life to God. The house where his family lived is now open to visitors, offering insight not only into the early life of the saint but also society in rural southern Italy at the turn of the 20th century.

After the death of Padre Pio, the Saint’s friars thought of constructing a new church, because too sensitive to the material and spiritual needs of the devotees, that the existing church could not contain. After the presentation of several projects, Friars entrusted the design of a new church to the architect Renzo Piano, so that it could accommodate 6,500 people. For its size it is the second largest church in Italy, after St. Peter's Church in Rome.