Farm Holiday in Campania Benevento Benevento

THE TOWN - Benevento

Benevento

The site was the chief town of the Samnites, who took refuge here after their defeat by the Roman Republic in 314 BC. 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 BC).
A Latin colony was planted here in 268 BC, 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.
Being a meeting point of six main roads, Beneventum was much visited by travellers. The Arch of Trajan erected in 114 AD is one of the best-preserved Roman structures in the Campagna. It repeats the formula of the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, with reliefs of Trajan's life and exploits of his reign.
Not long after it had been sacked by Totila and its walls razed, Benevento became the seat of a powerful Lombard duchy.
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.
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.

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 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 massive bell tower was built in 1269 by the archbishop Romano Capodiferro.
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 sites

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.