Venafro

Conscious heir of a thriving Roman city and rich feudal capital

The area of the city, with two hills separated by a small valley, had hosted a Samnite fortress and then a flourishing Roman center, equipped with a theater and a large amphitheater. In the Middle Ages, for defensive needs, the center had developed at the foot of the Sant'Angelo hill, dominated by the castle, while the cathedral perhaps dating to the end of the 5th century AD stood on the San Leonardo hill which was populated until the 14th century and.

In the fifteenth century, despite the devastation of the previous century, Venafro boasted a higher population than the other centers in Molise, which was destined to grow considerably in the first half of the sixteenth century. Moreover, the so-called Via degli Abruzzi passed near Venafro, and was an important medieval commercial artery that connected Florence and Naples, through Umbria, Abruzzo and Molise, in an eleven-day ride.

Given its strategic position, during the 15th century the city was involved in the conflict for the dominion of the Kingdom between the Angevins and the Aragonese and, after having been royal property for a long time, it was enfeoffed to the Pandone family. They maintained ownership of the County of Venafro, not without conflicts with the citizens and interruptions, until 1528, when Count Enrico, guilty of having betrayed the Spanish monarchy by siding with the French, was executed in Naples. His assets therefore returned to the Crown, to then be granted to the Colonna family before passing into the hands of the Lannoys. This event radically changed the status of the city, which was incorporated into a noble domain whose center was Sulmona, and thus entered a phase of decline.

With the Pandone family, Venafro had instead turned into a rich feudal capital of the Renaissance, undergoing, among other things, various restorative interventions in its defensive structures and hosting a profitable horse breeding farm, traces of which remain in the magnificent decoration of the castle rooms. An important role was played by the city's elite, which between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries could boast prominent intellectuals such as Nicandro Iossio, Antonio Giordano and Giovanni de Amicis, and whose cultural erudition is also demonstrated by the refined commissions in the religious buildings of Venafro.