Molise

History

The region has seen the presence of man since ancient times.

Before the Roman rule, which ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the region was inhabited by the Samnites and Frentani.

By the end of Rome Molise was conquered by the Ostrogoths in 535, and then, in 572, by the Lombards who joined the territories of the region to the Duchy of Benevento.

In 860, then, it was the turn of the Saracens who, destroyed Isernia, Telese, Alife, Sepino, Boiano and Venafro, settled in the region.

By the tenth century onwards there are nine different city-states: Venafro, Larino, Trivento, Bojano, Isernia, Campomarino, Termoli, Sangro and Pietrabbondante. In 1095 the most powerful among them, Bojano, passed under the dominion of Norman Lord Hugo I of Molhouse, which probably gave its name to the region.

Towards the end of the thirteenth century the region became part of the Kingdom of Naples, who gave a new boost to the economy of the area leading to a slight recovery.

In the sixteenth century the region became part of the province of Capitanata (Apulia) and in 1806 became an autonomous province of the Abruzzo region.

The general deterioration in economic conditions of the population, after the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy (1861), triggered some phenomenon of brigandage, and a considerable emigration, not just abroad but also to more industrialized Italian areas.

During the Second World War, the region was heavily affected by the bombings, at least until the allied forces have not been able to land at Termoli, in September 1943.

The Italian region of Molise is the most recent: in 1963 the Abruzzo region is divided into two parts by a decree, which came into force only in 1970.