The patroness of Pescolanciano is Saint Anne, celebrated on 25 and 26 July; a wooden statue of the saint is kept in the town. The rite of the «sfilata dei covoni» (sheaf parade) is part of her feast and was born as thanksgiving to the saint from the survivors of the great earthquake of 26 July 1805: every year on 25 July, at sunset, the people of Pescolanciano parade «r'manuocchiæ», sheaves of wheat symbolically offered to the saint, in a rite that blends elements of religious devotion with older elements of peasant culture, a representation of gratitude to mother Earth for the wheat harvest just completed.
The castle, which appears to stand on an original Samnite fortified site, has a documented fortified presence at least from the time of Alboin, around 573; according to some historians it instead dates from the time of Charlemagne, around 810, or of Conrad the Salic, in 1024. Under Frederick II the territory was governed by the feudal lord Ruggero di Peschio-Langiano, tasked by the king with dismantling the Caldora castle at Carpinone and besieging Isernia: the expedition was organised in the already-existing stronghold and set out in 1224. After the 1805 earthquake, which caused serious damage to the castle and the loss of documents and period objects, Pescolanciano's cultural site came back to life under the guidance of the eighth duke, Giovanni Maria d'Alessandro, gentleman of the chamber to Ferdinand II, who between 1846 and 1847 hosted a German historian at the castle.
