Cari lettori, come vi avevamo promesso ieri, oggi pubblichiamo la versione in lingua inglese del contributo inviatoci dall'amico Gianni Parisi che ringraziamo di cuore. Come vi avevamo detto nei giorni scorsi, il nostro sito sta ricevendo parecchie visite anche dall'estero e questo articolo in lingua inglese sarà sicuramente uno stimolo a seguirci di più anche per chi ci legge dall'estero.
Alife. Travelling along the ex main road 158 that leads from Caiazzo to Matese, the visitor can see a sublime and beautiful sightseeing. Looking from the hills you can find the wonderful landscape of the severe and wild Matese that also after Spring continue in having the top of the mountain Miletto still covered in snow, a beautiful scenery that spreads among the colours of nature.
At the bottom of the mountain you can see the tidy and fertile campaign with its brilliant and unique colour due to the richness of water that from the mountain comes down irrigating all the fields. Placed at the centre of the plane you can see Alife, Queen of the valley for more than two thousand years. The first tracks of the human presence in the Alifan territory are found in the half Palaeolithic and Neolithic era, in the bronze and iron age (XI century B. C.).
The old Osca population left tracks of its presence in the Alifan area that later, in the V century B. C., was occupied by Sanniti who coined in “Alipha” their own coin, the silver didramma of the IV century B. C.
After cruel and long fights, in 310 B. C. Alife passed under the control of Rome thanks to the consul Caio Marcio Rutilio who defeated the head Erennio Ponzio, tenacious defender of his earth. But the Roman Conquest didn’t decrease the fair and industrious nature of the Alifan inhabitants.
The town belonging to the Roman Republic was “Praefectura” and “Municipium” and it was registered at the Teretina tribe, it was crossed by a fork of Latina street and rounded by powerful walls in “opus incertum” with a nucleus of lime and cement of 2,5 metres with circular and square bastions which offered a further defence against assailants, four doors with door posts made of stone and bordered by square bastions, were opened at the centre of their respective hands. Inside the wall, an area of about 540 metres for 405 is enclosed. It corresponds to 218.700 mq; equal to 21.87.00 hectares. Nowadays, continue in existing the unchanged old urban system with crossed streets that divide the town into 4 sectors. The street that joins Porta Napoli with Porta Roma was named “decumanus maximus” while the other one that joins Porta Fiume with Porta Piedimonte was called “cardo maximus”. In the four sectors divided by decumani, major and minor hinges, there were perpendicular and parallel streets that crossing formed some rectangles called “insulae”, here rose public buildings and spaces for private houses. Inside and outside the town you can find several monuments and archaeological tracks, such as: the Criptoportico with 3 hands and double nave; the Mausoleum, anciently belonging to the rich and powerful Acilii Glabriones family, is placed in the actual Liberazione square outside Porta Napoli (it’s one of the most important example of the roman funereal architecture in Campania, it’s nine ways smaller than the Pantheon of Rome); the Anfitheatre, outside the urban perimeter, enormous structure, actually in work in progress; the Forum with “Tabernae” in the actual post office; the Thermal Baths; the Church Madonna della Grazia, ancient roman monument transformed into a Christian Church (interesting object for the archaeological supervision thanks to its particular architectonical form); the Aqueducts and the several Cemeteries in “Conca d’Oro” and “Croce di Santa Maria” famous for the archaic graves (last VII-VI century B. C.) and coffins covered with tufa or tiles of the II – I century B. C.
Alifae’s feasts were celebrated in an Alifan calendar. Its territory was introduced into the Volturno plane and its tracks are present in the actual agrarian subdivisions. The Ager Allifanus celebrated by Cicero for its fertility, was rich of villae rusticae, where noble Romans went to have a rest and to enjoy the quiet of these places far from the chaos of Rome. The country that surrounded “Alifae” was rich of cultivated fields and good fruit of the earth, its typical products were wine and oil. Silio Italico says the Alifan territory was not ungrateful to Bacco (Silio – Book II – XLI) and probably onions. As a matter of fact, in an epigraph found in the territory of Raviscanina, a certain “Naevoleius Chrestus says he already knew where his body and that of his wife, were to be buried. As her name suggest, she would have something in common with onions, as her name Caepa meant onion and caeparius the seller of this vegetable”. (Nicola Mancini “Allifae” p.29 ). The town of “Allifae” had his major success during the I and II century B. C. but unfortunately it had the same fate of the Roman Empire, a slow but heavy decrease because of different elements: natural elements (earthquakes and floods), historical elements (invasion of different populations such as: Unni, Ostrogoti, Visigoti, Ungari, Saraceni, Longobardi etc….).
Alife was proclaimed Diocese in the V century, and after the Longobard domination it became County of the Duchy of Benevento involved in difficult and endless struggles against Bisanzio, the Empire and the Papacy. Finally, it passed in the XI century under the Norman control of the Quarrel – Drengot family, with Rainulfo III as the last count of Alife, who adolescent supported his father Roberto in governing the Reign, for this reason he was called “puer bonae indolis”, as we can see in a document of the Archipishop of Benevento dated 30th august, 1109.
He made build the cathedral in 1132 and he ordered to transfer from Alife the rests of San Sisto, first Pope and Martyr, Patron of the town. Rainulfo, the Norman, benevolent man of Alife, fought against Ruggero II of Altavilla to obtain the supremacy of the South Italy. After having burnt the town in 1138 he won the disagreement with the unlucky brother-in-law after his sudden death happened in Troia in 1139.
After further devastations because of natural disasters such as daily earthquakes and numerous sacks, population decreased and malaria infested those lands once rich and famous for the richness of its water and the fertility of its earth.
When Alife was under the Reign of various noble families such as: Gaetani, Schweisspeunt, D’Aquino, Casa di Fiandra, D’Avella, Janvilla, Marzano, Stendardo, Origlia, Diazcarlon, it followed the events of the Reign of Naples until the Unity of Italy when it was introduced into the Reign after the wars of Risorgimento. With the Unity of Italy rose the phenomenon of brigandage above all in the internal areas of Matese extending in Alife but just in few zones of the Alifan area, because as the territory was a plane, the bandits couldn’t take to flight.
In this century Alife suffered many devastations: during the war of 1940/43 there were destructions and sacks from part of Nazis retired in Montecassino and the consequently American bombardments of 9th and 13th October, 1943 which led to the death of many people and destruction of ancient houses.
Finally, at the end of the XX century, during the night of 14th of May, 1984 the silver statue of San Sisto, first Pope and Martyr, Patron of the town, kept in the cathedral since XVIII century, was stolen. The monument of great devotion and great product of Enlightenment, vanished in the suspicious market that foments the illegal collection of sacral objects. But also in this case, the pride of the inhabitants of Alife didn’t vanish: they made build another silver image of San Sisto (after 2 years from the theft).
It’s the devotion for the Saint and love for traditions that unites these people to their own earth.
On the 14th of December, 2001 another statue, the staue of San Giovannino, was stolen, a monument that had adorned the square placed outside Porta Napoli for about a decade.
Although these sad news item that continually torment our land and the historical destructions that have characterized Alife in the past, now they are more than two thousand years that this glorious town lives and prospers at the centre of the green valley crossed by Volturno as the ancient Queen of the fertile plane.
At the bottom of the mountain you can see the tidy and fertile campaign with its brilliant and unique colour due to the richness of water that from the mountain comes down irrigating all the fields. Placed at the centre of the plane you can see Alife, Queen of the valley for more than two thousand years. The first tracks of the human presence in the Alifan territory are found in the half Palaeolithic and Neolithic era, in the bronze and iron age (XI century B. C.).
The old Osca population left tracks of its presence in the Alifan area that later, in the V century B. C., was occupied by Sanniti who coined in “Alipha” their own coin, the silver didramma of the IV century B. C.
After cruel and long fights, in 310 B. C. Alife passed under the control of Rome thanks to the consul Caio Marcio Rutilio who defeated the head Erennio Ponzio, tenacious defender of his earth. But the Roman Conquest didn’t decrease the fair and industrious nature of the Alifan inhabitants.
The town belonging to the Roman Republic was “Praefectura” and “Municipium” and it was registered at the Teretina tribe, it was crossed by a fork of Latina street and rounded by powerful walls in “opus incertum” with a nucleus of lime and cement of 2,5 metres with circular and square bastions which offered a further defence against assailants, four doors with door posts made of stone and bordered by square bastions, were opened at the centre of their respective hands. Inside the wall, an area of about 540 metres for 405 is enclosed. It corresponds to 218.700 mq; equal to 21.87.00 hectares. Nowadays, continue in existing the unchanged old urban system with crossed streets that divide the town into 4 sectors. The street that joins Porta Napoli with Porta Roma was named “decumanus maximus” while the other one that joins Porta Fiume with Porta Piedimonte was called “cardo maximus”. In the four sectors divided by decumani, major and minor hinges, there were perpendicular and parallel streets that crossing formed some rectangles called “insulae”, here rose public buildings and spaces for private houses. Inside and outside the town you can find several monuments and archaeological tracks, such as: the Criptoportico with 3 hands and double nave; the Mausoleum, anciently belonging to the rich and powerful Acilii Glabriones family, is placed in the actual Liberazione square outside Porta Napoli (it’s one of the most important example of the roman funereal architecture in Campania, it’s nine ways smaller than the Pantheon of Rome); the Anfitheatre, outside the urban perimeter, enormous structure, actually in work in progress; the Forum with “Tabernae” in the actual post office; the Thermal Baths; the Church Madonna della Grazia, ancient roman monument transformed into a Christian Church (interesting object for the archaeological supervision thanks to its particular architectonical form); the Aqueducts and the several Cemeteries in “Conca d’Oro” and “Croce di Santa Maria” famous for the archaic graves (last VII-VI century B. C.) and coffins covered with tufa or tiles of the II – I century B. C.
Alifae’s feasts were celebrated in an Alifan calendar. Its territory was introduced into the Volturno plane and its tracks are present in the actual agrarian subdivisions. The Ager Allifanus celebrated by Cicero for its fertility, was rich of villae rusticae, where noble Romans went to have a rest and to enjoy the quiet of these places far from the chaos of Rome. The country that surrounded “Alifae” was rich of cultivated fields and good fruit of the earth, its typical products were wine and oil. Silio Italico says the Alifan territory was not ungrateful to Bacco (Silio – Book II – XLI) and probably onions. As a matter of fact, in an epigraph found in the territory of Raviscanina, a certain “Naevoleius Chrestus says he already knew where his body and that of his wife, were to be buried. As her name suggest, she would have something in common with onions, as her name Caepa meant onion and caeparius the seller of this vegetable”. (Nicola Mancini “Allifae” p.29 ). The town of “Allifae” had his major success during the I and II century B. C. but unfortunately it had the same fate of the Roman Empire, a slow but heavy decrease because of different elements: natural elements (earthquakes and floods), historical elements (invasion of different populations such as: Unni, Ostrogoti, Visigoti, Ungari, Saraceni, Longobardi etc….).
Alife was proclaimed Diocese in the V century, and after the Longobard domination it became County of the Duchy of Benevento involved in difficult and endless struggles against Bisanzio, the Empire and the Papacy. Finally, it passed in the XI century under the Norman control of the Quarrel – Drengot family, with Rainulfo III as the last count of Alife, who adolescent supported his father Roberto in governing the Reign, for this reason he was called “puer bonae indolis”, as we can see in a document of the Archipishop of Benevento dated 30th august, 1109.
He made build the cathedral in 1132 and he ordered to transfer from Alife the rests of San Sisto, first Pope and Martyr, Patron of the town. Rainulfo, the Norman, benevolent man of Alife, fought against Ruggero II of Altavilla to obtain the supremacy of the South Italy. After having burnt the town in 1138 he won the disagreement with the unlucky brother-in-law after his sudden death happened in Troia in 1139.
After further devastations because of natural disasters such as daily earthquakes and numerous sacks, population decreased and malaria infested those lands once rich and famous for the richness of its water and the fertility of its earth.
When Alife was under the Reign of various noble families such as: Gaetani, Schweisspeunt, D’Aquino, Casa di Fiandra, D’Avella, Janvilla, Marzano, Stendardo, Origlia, Diazcarlon, it followed the events of the Reign of Naples until the Unity of Italy when it was introduced into the Reign after the wars of Risorgimento. With the Unity of Italy rose the phenomenon of brigandage above all in the internal areas of Matese extending in Alife but just in few zones of the Alifan area, because as the territory was a plane, the bandits couldn’t take to flight.
In this century Alife suffered many devastations: during the war of 1940/43 there were destructions and sacks from part of Nazis retired in Montecassino and the consequently American bombardments of 9th and 13th October, 1943 which led to the death of many people and destruction of ancient houses.
Finally, at the end of the XX century, during the night of 14th of May, 1984 the silver statue of San Sisto, first Pope and Martyr, Patron of the town, kept in the cathedral since XVIII century, was stolen. The monument of great devotion and great product of Enlightenment, vanished in the suspicious market that foments the illegal collection of sacral objects. But also in this case, the pride of the inhabitants of Alife didn’t vanish: they made build another silver image of San Sisto (after 2 years from the theft).
It’s the devotion for the Saint and love for traditions that unites these people to their own earth.
On the 14th of December, 2001 another statue, the staue of San Giovannino, was stolen, a monument that had adorned the square placed outside Porta Napoli for about a decade.
Although these sad news item that continually torment our land and the historical destructions that have characterized Alife in the past, now they are more than two thousand years that this glorious town lives and prospers at the centre of the green valley crossed by Volturno as the ancient Queen of the fertile plane.
Gianni Parisi
