Benevento
Benevento is a town and
comune of
Campania,
Italy, capital of the
province of Benevento, 50 km northeast of
Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 m (300 ft) above sea-level at the confluence of the
Calore and
Sabbato. It is also the seat of a Catholic archbishopric.
Benevento occupies the site of the ancient
Beneventum, originally
Maleventum or more correctly
Maloeis (derived from the Greek word for apple
malon). The Romans' theory that it meant "the site of bad wind" is no longer considered by historians today. Some older (and more speculative) authors also proposed it could mean "a place of crazy people", as in ancient times it was supposed that mad people had a sort of wind storm inside their head). In the
imperial period it was supposed to have been founded by
Diomedes after the
Trojan War.
Benevento in antiquity
The site was the chief town of the
Samnites, who took refuge here after their defeat by the
Roman Republic in
314 BCE. It appears not to have fallen into Roman hands until
Pyrrhus's absence in
Sicily, but served as a base of operations in the last campaign against Pyrrhus, who gave up his campaign in Italy after the inconclusive
Battle of Beneventum (
275 BCE).
A
Latin colony was planted here in
268 BCE, and it was then that the name was changed for the sake of superstition (
male = bad,
bene = good), and probably then that the
Via Appia was extended from
Capua to
Beneventum. It remained in the hands of the Romans during both the
Punic and the
Social Wars, and was a fortress of importance to them. After the Social War it became a
municipium and under
Augustus a colony.
The position is naturally strong, being protected by the two rivers, and the medieval fortifications, which are nearly 2 miles in length, probably follow the ancient line, which was razed to the ground by
Totila.
Being a meeting point of six main roads, Beneventum was much visited by travellers. The Arch of Trajan erected in 114 CE is one of the best-preserved Roman structures in the Campania. It repeats the formula of the
Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, with reliefs of Trajan's life and exploits of his reign. Some of the sculptures are in the
British Museum.
Duchy of Benevento
Main article: Duchy of Benevento
.
See also the List of Dukes and Princes of Benevento.Not long after it had been sacked by
Totila and its walls razed (
545), Benevento became the seat of a powerful
Lombard duchy. The circumstances of the creation of
duchy of Benevento are disputed. According to some scholars, Lombards were present in southern Italy well before the complete conquest of the
Po Valley: the duchy would have been founded in
576 by some soldiers led by a
Zotto, autonomously from the Lombard king.
Zotto's successor was Arechi I (died in
640), from the Duchy of Friuli, who captured
Capua and
Crotone, sacked the Byzantine
Amalfi but was unable to capture
Naples. After his reign the
Eastern Roman Empire had left in southern Italy only Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, Sorrento, the tip of Calabria and the maritime cities of
Apulia.
In the following decades Benevento conquered some territories to the Roman-Byzantine duchy, but the main enemies was now the northern Lombard reign itself.
King Liutprand intervened in several times imposing a candidate of his own to the duchy's succession; his successor
Ratchis declared the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento foreign countries where it was forbidden to travel without a royal permission.
With the collapse of the Lombard kingdom in 773,
Duke Arechi II was elevated to Prince under the new empire of the
Franks, in compensation for having some of his territory transferred back to the
Papal States. Benevento was acclaimed by a chronicler as a "second Pavia"—
Ticinum geminum— after the Lombard capital was lost. The unit of this principality was short-lived: in
851,
Salerno broke off under
Siconulf and, by the end of that century,
Capua was independent as well.
The so-called
Langobardia minor was unified for the last time by Duke
Pandolfo Testa di Ferro, who expanded his extensive control in the
Mezzogiorno from his base in Benevento and
Capua. Before his death (March 981), ha had gained from Emperor
Otto I the title of Duke of Spoleto also. However, both Benevento and Salerno rebelled to his son and heir,
Pandulf II.
The first decades of the 11th century saw two more descent of German rulers to southern Italy:
Henry II, conquered in
1022 both Capua and Benevento, but returned back after the failed siege of
Troia. Similar results obtained
Conrad II in
1038. In these years the three states (Benevento, Capua, and Salerno) were often engaged in local wars and disputed that favoured the rise of the
Normans from mercenaries to ruler of the whole southern Italy. The greatest of them was
Robert Guiscard, who captured Benevento in
1053 after the
Emperor Henry III had first authorised its conquest in
1047 when
Pandulf III and
Landulf VI shut the gates to him. These princes were later expelled from the city and then recalled after the pope failed to defend it from Guiscard. The city was a papal city until after
1081.
Papal Benevento
Benevento passed to the Papacy peacefully when the emperor
Henry III ceded it to
Leo IX, in exchange for the
bishopric of
Bamberg (
1077). Benevento was the cornerstone of the Papacy's temporal powers in southern Italy. The Papacy ruled it by appointed rectors, seated in a magnificent palace, and the principality continued to be a papal possession until
1806, when
Napoleon granted it to his minister
Talleyrand with the title of Sovereign Prince. Talleyrand was never to settle down and actually rule his new principality; in
1815 Benevento was returned to the
papacy. It was
united to Italy in
1860.
Manfred of Sicily lost his life in
1266 in battle with
Charles of Anjou not far from the town (see
Battle of Benevento).
Ancient remains
The importance of Benevento in classical times is vouched for by the many remains of
antiquity which it possesses, of which the most famous is the
triumphal arch erected in honour of
Trajan by the
senate and people of
Rome in
114, with important reliefs relating to its history. Enclosed in the walls, this construction marked the entrance in Benevento of the
Via Traiana, the road built by the Spanish emperor to shorten the path from Rome to
Brindisi. The reliefs show the civil and military deeds of Trajan.
There are other considerable remains from ancient era:
* The well-preserved ancient
theatre, next to the Cathedral and the Port'Arsas. This grandious building was erected by
Hadrian, and later expanded by
Caracalla. It had a diameter of 90 meters and could house up to 10,000 spectators. It is currently used for theatral, dance and opera spectacles.
* A large
cryptoporticus 60 m long, known as the ruins of
Santi Quaranta, and probably an
emporium. According to Meomartini, the portion preserved is only a fraction of the whole, which once measured 520 m in length).
* A brick arch called
Arco del Sacramento.
* The
Ponte Lebbroso, a bridge on the Via Appia over the Sabato river, below the city center.
*
Thermae along the road to
Avellino.
* The
Bue Apis, popularly known as
A ufara ("buffalo"). It is a basament in the shape of an ox or bull coming from the Temple of Isis.
Many inscriptions and ancient fragments may be seen built into the old houses. In
1903 the foundations of the Temple of Isis were discovered close to the Arch of Trajan, and many fragments of fine sculptures in both the Egyptian and the Greco-Roman style belonging to it were found. They had apparently been used as the foundation of a portion of the
city wall, reconstructed in
663 under the fear of an attack by the
Byzantine emperor Constans II, the temple having been destroyed by order of the bishop,
St Barbatus, to provide the necessary material (A. Meomartini, 0. Marucchi and L. Savignoni in
Notizie degli Scafi, 1904, 107 sqq.).
Santa Sofia
The church of
Santa Sofia is a circular Lombard edifice of about
760, now modernized, of small proportions: it can be enclosed within a circle of 23,50 m of diameter. It is one of the most important examples of European architecture of the High Middle Ages. The plant was very original for the times: it consists of a central hexagon with, at each vertex, columns taken from the temple of
Isis; these are connected by arches which support the cupola. The inner hexagon is in turn enclosed in a decagonal ring with eight white limestone pilasters and two columns next to the entrance. The church has a fine
cloister of the
12th century, constructed in part of fragments of earlier buildings. The church interior was once totally frescoed by
Byzantine artists: fragments of these paintings, portraying the
Histories of Christ, can be still seen in the two side apses.
Santa Sofia was almost destroyed by the earthquake of
1688, and rebuilt in
Baroque forms by commission of the then cardinal Orsini of Benevento (later
Pope Benedict XIII). The original forms were hidden, and were recovered only after the discussed restoration of
1951.
The cloiser give access to the Samnium Museum, with notable sections of remains from Ancient age and Middle Ages. These include an
obelisk, one of the two that once decorated the Temple of Isis. The other one can be still seen in the city, in the central Piazza Papiniano.
The Cathedral
The
Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta, with its fine arcaded façade and incomplete square
campanile (begun in
1279) dates from the
9th century. It was rebuilt in
1114. The façade was inspired by the Pisane Gothic style. Its bronze doors, adorned with
bas-reliefs, are notable example of
Romanesque art which may belong to the beginning of the
13th century. The interior is in the form of a
basilica, the double aisles carried on ancient columns. There are ambones resting on columns supported by lions, and decorated with reliefs and coloured marble mosaic, and a candelabrum of 1311. A marble statue of the apostle San Bartolomeo, by Nicola da Monteforte, is also from the 14th century.
The massive bell tower was built in
1269 by the archbishop Romano Capodiferro.
Rocca dei Rettori
The castle of Benevento, best known as
Rocca dei Rettori or
Rocca di Manfredi, stands at the highest point of the town, commanding the valley of the rivers Sabato and Calore, and the two main ancient roads Via Appia and Via Traiana. The site had been already used by the Samnites, who had constructed here a set of defensive terraces, and the Romans, with a thermal plant (
Castellum aquae), whose remains can be still seen in the castle garden. The
Benedictines had here a monastery. It received the current name in the Middle Ages, when it became the seat of the Papal governors, the
Rettori.
The castle is in fact made by two distinct edifices: the Torrione ("Big Tower"), was built by the Lombards starting from 871; and the Palazzo dei Governatori, built by the Popes from
1320.
Other sights
*
Sant'Ilario, not far from the Arch of Traian along the first trait of the Via Traiana, is a very ancient, small building dating from the end of the
6th or the beginning of the
7th century.
*The
Palazzo di Paolo V (16th century).
*The church of
San Salvatore, dating from the High Middle Ages.
*The Gothic church of
San Francesco alla Dogana.
*The Baroque churches of
Annunziata,
San Bartolomeo and
San Filippo.
*
List of independent Dukes (571 - 774) and Princes ( 774 - 1053) of Benevento*
Beneventan liturgical chant, ca 650 - ca 800*
Pictures from Benevento*Vera von Falkenhausen, "I Longobardi meridionali", in AA.VV.,
Il Mezzogiorno dai Bizantini a Federico II, vol. III of
Storia d'Italia, ed. by Giuseppe Galasso, UTET, Torino 1983, pp. 251-364;
*Nicola Cilento,
Italia meridionale longobarda, Ricciardi, Milano-Napoli, 1971.
