Benevento

Benevento: Roman theatre

Benevento, Latin Beneventum, city and archiepiscopal see, Campania regione, southern Italy. The city lies on a ridge between the Calore and Sabato rivers, northeast of Naples. It originated as Malies, a town of the Oscans, or Samnites; later known as Maleventum, or Malventum, it was renamed Beneventum by the Romans. It became an important town on the Appian Way and was a base for Roman expansion in southern Italy. In 275 bc, Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was defeated at Beneventum in his last battle with the Romans. After partial destruction by Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, in ad 452, Benevento in 571 became the capital of an important Lombard duchy controlling much of southern Italy. It passed in the 11th century to the Byzantines and then to the papacy, which ruled it—except for a brief period (1806–15) when it was governed as a principality by Napoleon’s minister Talleyrand—until it became part of Italy in 1860. In 1266 Charles I of Anjou defeated and killed the Hohenstaufen Manfred, king of Naples and Sicily, at Benevento.

Although damaged by earthquakes and devastated by Allied air raids in World War II, the city preserves many historic buildings. Monuments from classical times include Trajan’s Arch (Porta Aurea; ad 114–117), the ruins of a Roman theatre, and the Ponte Lebbroso, a bridge over the Sabato River. The frequently rebuilt cathedral (founded 7th century), with magnificent bronze doors; the 12th-century cloister of the Church of Santa Sofia (8th century, rebuilt 1688); and the castle (1321) are notable medieval buildings.

Benevento is an agricultural centre for wheat, grapes, olives, and vegetables; its products include almond cakes, a liqueur called Strega, chocolate, biscuits, and agricultural machinery. Wine, bricks, and matches are also manufactured. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 63,026.