Patron saint festival In 93 days
Saint Bonitus of Clermont, patron of Bonito
📅 Every year, on 15 January
Bonito celebrates Saint Bonitus of Clermont on 15 January, in the shadow of the Norman castle.
The name has two explanations and both say something: either the Latin Bonetum, a fortification shaped like a priest's biretta, or the medieval personal name Bonitus. The fortification did exist: in the tenth century the Lombards built the Castrum Boneti here, on the border between the county of Ariano and the duchy of Benevento, and the castle still dominates the village. It has been rebuilt many times, though, because the calendar of this place is a list of earthquakes: 1125, then the Sannio quake of 1688, the Irpinia one of 1732, and again 1962 and 1980.
The tremors have left their mark on a chapel too. Beneath the church of the Annunziata, pulled down after the earthquake of 1962, the crypt survives where the people of Bonito keep the mummified remains of an unknown man: they have venerated him for generations and call the place the chapel of Zi' Vicienzo. Bonito is also where Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898, the shoemaker who would shoe Hollywood, and where his wife Wanda was born.
The Bonito guide
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Bonito 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Bonito
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Bonito, but an easy day trip away.
Castello Sanfelice 📍 Bagnoli del Trigno · 4.1 km At 783 metres above Bagnoli, the fortress that guarded the Castel di Sangro-Lucera drove road. chiesa di San Silvestro 📍 Bagnoli del Trigno · 4.5 km A church with no façade, wedged between two rocks, and a crucifix with jointed arms. Castello d'Evoli 📍 Castropignano · 9.4 km Legend gives it 365 rooms: the d'Evoli stronghold above the Biferno valley Santuario italico di Pietrabbondante 📍 Pietrabbondante · 11 km The theatre and temples where the Pentri Samnites gathered their senate, above the Trigno. castello D'Alessandro 📍 Pescolanciano · 11 km A drawbridge finished in 1691, relics in the ducal chapel, German officers in 1943. torre di Oratino 📍 Oratino · 12 km A doorway high above the ground and a ladder to haul up: the Norman tower of Oratino.