Castel Campagnano

This village on the right bank of the Volturno has changed its name twice and its province twice, always while staying where it was. In the Middle Ages they called it castrum Campanianum; then, for centuries, simply Campagnano; in 1862 it became Castello di Campagnano and since 1916 it has been called Castel Campagnano. As for the province, from 1927 to 1945 it belonged to that of Benevento, because the province of Caserta had been temporarily abolished: the inhabitants found themselves Beneventans without having moved house, and Casertans again at the end of the war. On the coat of arms, on a blue field, there is a camp tent surmounted by a cross — that is, precisely, a temporary shelter pitched in a field.

Two real wars have passed through, centuries apart. In 1383 the territory was the scene of the battle between Charles III of Naples and Louis I of Anjou, who were disputing the kingdom. And on the night between 13 and 14 October 1943 the village was liberated by the American troops coming up the Volturno valley. There remain the ducal castle, the church of San Michele Arcangelo and the parish church of Santa Maria ad Nives, rebuilt in 1753 and with a single nave; in the hamlet of Squille, facing the river, Roman finds have come to light over the years. Today Castel Campagnano lives on agriculture — vines and olives on the surrounding hills — belongs to the Cittaslow network and in June holds two days of festivities devoted to wine and oil.