It is no accident that it is the land of Witches, a place that is the child of a complex and fascinating religious and spiritual history, a resplendent city full of majestic and monumental works that must have impressed contemporaries by their beauty and splendor and that still represents a uniqueness worldwide, sometimes unfortunately forgotten.

Rich territory with a great history that has left important evidence, capable of fascinating visitors who understand travel as an opportunity to grow and enrich their knowledge and culture.

Benevento, the ancient capital that put fear into Rome, remained a fervent religious laboratory for centuries on end.

The Benevento version of the myth is given by Procopius. Rejected by Argos after the taking of Troy Diomedes, a victim of marital infidelity, is forced to leave his Greek homeland to come to Italy. As identifying marks he left the city the tusks of the Caledonian boar that his uncle Meleager had killed as a hunting trophy. The caledonian boar mentioned in the legend, in medieval times became the symbol of Benevento so much so that it is still depicted today in the municipal coat of arms. In this regard, a 19th-century Benevento historian relates that of Benevento’s noble origin “bears full witness to the Greek marble coat of arms set in the bell tower of the archbishopric, representing the Caledonian boar killed by Meleager.

The first major phase of Benevento’s history, about which little is known, is related to the affairs of the Samnites. The primitive settlement was located in contrada Cellarulo, at the confluence of the Sabato and Calore rivers, in a border position between the Sannio Irpino and Caudino Sannio.

Samnium was the scene of three wars against the Romans.

The Second Samnite War (c. 327 B.C.-304 B.C.) constituted the first real confrontation between the rising power and the Samnites, which was resolved in favor of the latter. The Romans attempted to wage war from Capua to Benevento, but a clever Samnite stratagem succeeded in blocking near Caudium the Roman troops. Once trapped, the Roman soldiers were forced to pass under the Forche Caudine, an arch composed of the enemy’s spears in such a way as to force each soldier to bend his back in order to pass. In theThird Samnite War (c. 298 B.C.- 290 B.C.) it was the Romans who won it, defeating one by one all the Samnites and finally forcing them into a peace treaty :Maleventum was taken by the Romans.

The historian Mario Rotili thus describes the Roman city of Benevento in its heyday: “The city in its heyday extended from the Ponte Leproso and the Pons Maior (Fratto bridge) in the west to the area surrounding Trajan’s Arch in the east, while the northern boundary was given by the Calore and the southern boundary by the Sabato. In the far eastern part arose the Temple of Isis built under Domitian in 88 AD, the Temple of Minerva and the grandiose Arch of Trajan erected between 114 and 117 AD at the beginning of the new road that shortened the route of the Appian Way and was named after the wise emperor. The importance and happy condition of Beneventum under the Roman Empire is sufficiently attested by the numerous ruins and inscriptions. Its wealth is also confirmed by the large quantity of coins it minted. It certainly owed its prosperity to its favorable position along the Appian Way, precisely at the junction of the two main branches of that important road (one of which was later called the Via Traiana). The stop at Beneventum in Horace’s account concerning his journey from Rome to BrundisiuShe owed to the favorable location the honor of repeated visits by emperors, among which those of Nero, Trajan, and Septimius Severus are particularly remembered.

Later emperors gave the city additional territories and erected, or at least named, a variety of public buildings. It also appears that Roman Benevento was a place of great literary activity.

The bulk of the works that came to light from the grounds near Port’Aurea and the Via Traiana in 1903 and later, represent, without a doubt, the most substantial and organic apparatus of Egyptian artifacts discovered in Europe:

If Turin can boast the largest collection of artifacts in its famous Egyptian Museum, Benevento can consider itself the ” most Egyptian” city in all of Italy. And because the cult of Isis was widespread not only in Egypt and Syria but also throughout the Grecized East, it became the cult most frequented by outsiders settled in Benevento. In this aspect of Eastern reception Benevento could only compete with Pozzuoli.

Most of the material evidence of the Samnite Isiac cult, are today preserved at the Arcos Museum, where they are on permanent display, but since our city has experienced several dominations throughout history, it is possible to find many remains of Egyptian artifacts also in buildings related to other historical periods, most often used as repurposed material; or simply scattered along the streets and alleys of our beautiful city.

 

When the Roman Empire fell (476 A.D.), the so-called barbarian peoples broke into Italy, devastating the best lands and occupying the main cities, which fell to the force of their arms. Benevento was no exception.

The Lombards made Benevento the capital of a powerful Lombard duchy that, while essentially independent, gravitated to the area of influence of the Lombard kingdom of northern Italy.

The figure of St. Barbatus, bishop of Benevento, has an aura of legend: He became bishop for a space of no less than nineteen years and governed the diocese sanctely, urging the Lombards to abandon superstitions and give themselves over entirely to the true faith. Constant II’s siege and the hardships of war forced the Lombards to abandon idol cults and cut down the walnut tree, a demonic tree around which strange rituals took place.

According to legend as the tree was being uprooted, “out of the distraught roots came a scaly and barren serpent, the devil.”

Recurring gatherings took place around the tree, during which participants used to sauté a goat skin suspended from a branch, and then chew parts of it in order to take possession of the power contained in it. This rite, homophagic in nature, was nothing more than a totemic banquet in which the raw meat of the sacrificed animal was eaten.

From this primitive practice, in use by the early Lombards, came the legend of witches, which originated in the 12th and 13th centuries. According to legend, witches used to gather around the walnut tree to do strange dances and magical rituals.

 

With King Desiderius’ march on Benevento settled Arechi II(thanks to whom we owe the construction of the church of St. Sophia, part of his vast patronage project) who had married the king’s daughter.

After the fall of Langobardia Maior to the Franks (774), Duke Arechi II became a vassal of Charlemagne. The recognition of Frankish sovereignty, imposed by circumstances, Arechi made Benevento the second Pavia. He took in refugees from the dissolved Lombard kingdom and had the relics of his people (reliquiae Langobardorum gentis) arranged worthily. He built the magnificent, star-studded church of St. Sophia and sponsored other civil and religious construction sites.

However, the Last Lombard exponents would have to fight not only the Byzantines but also the new conquerors of southern Italy, the powerful Normans.

The pro-imperial policy ended with Pandulf III, who in 1047 had the courage to close the city gates in the face of Emperor Henry III the Black and Pope Clement II, who excommunicated him. Such a resounding gesture was due to the fact that the Benevento dynasty now felt encircled on every front: on the one hand the emperor disposed of Lombard lands in favor of the Normans, and on the other the pope claimed possession of Benevento. As the Normans ramped up, the principality tightened, and the Benevento princes had no choice but to watch helplessly as their rule came to an end.