Pietraroja lies on the eastern slopes of the Matese, and is the second highest comune in the Benevento province. The name comes from the colour of the rock: petra robia, red crag, like the Spanish piedra roja or the French pierre rouge, on account of the reddish limestone cropping out on the ridge of Monte Mutria; in fourteenth-century church records the village is Petra Rogia, and later Pietraroscia. Nor has it always stood where it stands now: the present settlement is the fourth building of the village, raised after the earthquake of 5 June 1688.
It was a centre of the Pentri Samnites, and of its later masters the best remembered is a Norman: Raone of San Flaimundo, founder of the Sanframondo line, who received from Roger II the holdings of the defeated barons' vassals. His name has survived in the old songs of Pietraroja as a byword for a haughty person. After Italian unification these mountains were brigand country: the band of Gabriele Varrone hid in the Cave of the Brigands, also called the Cave of the Fairies, which could be entered only by lowering oneself on ropes. In December 1863 the national guard laid siege to it and persuaded the men to come out by promising to spare their lives: as soon as they were out they were shot, behind the town hall, in a place still called Aria della Corte.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Pietraroja
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Pietraroja, but an easy day trip away.