Above the village, at five hundred and thirty metres, on a hill that lies exactly between Raviscanina and Sant'Angelo d'Alife, are the ruins of Rupe Canina: a Norman castle raised where the Samnites already had a fortress, along the old road between Benevento and Rome. The first lord the documents name, in 1139, is Riccardo di Ravecanina, brother of count Rainulf II Drengot, and from the rock he took the name he has gone down in history with: Riccardo di Rupecanina. Up there men fought over whether the kingdom of Roger II would hold or not; later Frederick II had the fortress put back in order and entrusted it to the Teutonic knights. Whoever climbs up today finds the keep, pieces of wall and what is left of the houses: a whole village still standing on the summit.
Because the village, at a certain point, came down. In the fifteenth century, under the Marzano, part of the inhabitants of Rupe Canina began to settle in the valley and founded two settlements: one would become Sant'Angelo d'Alife, the other is Raviscanina, which kept the rock's name. The pouring out lasted centuries and ended in the seventeenth, when between earthquakes, changes of master and loss of importance the rock was abandoned altogether: two comuni of the plain are the children of a town of stone that nobody lives in any more. Recent history has added another parenthesis: from 1927 to 1945 Raviscanina belonged to the province of Benevento, because that of Caserta had been suppressed, and it went back to Caserta only when the province was reconstituted.
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📅 Every year, on 29 September
On 29 September Raviscanina celebrates Saint Michael the Archangel; the municipal territory preserves the ancient Mura delle Fate walls and lies within the Matese National Park.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Raviscanina, but an easy day trip away.
