San Lorenzo Maggiore

San Lorenzo Maggiore is a town and comune in the province of Benevento, in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is a member of the Titerno "Local Action Group".

GEOGRAPHY

The main rivers that cross the municipality are the river "Heat" and the torrent of Ianare. The territory is hilly. The town, covers an area of 16.17 square kilometers and is bordered by the towns of San Lupo, Bridge, Paupisi, Vitulano and Sanframondi Guard. San Lorenzo Maggiore is one of the northern slope of Mount Taburno and the more southern border of the Matese. The main rivers that cross the municipality are the river and the river Janare Heat.

Environmentally the area is dominated by the two mountain ranges that surround emergencies. They consist, in the south, from the steep slopes of the Taburno-Camposauro that rise, over the course of the heat, rising from a hilly area the majestic relief with its forest cover significantly qualifies the values of the landscapes. To the north it is bounded by the Matese, one of the largest mountain ranges of the Apennines in Campania that extends over the provinces of Caserta, Benevento, Isernia and Campobasso. The massif Taburno- Camposauro rises up to over 1,390 m above sea level and, on the north, it presents an imposing vegetation mainly consists of coppice plus some stretches of high forests; between those provisions prevail beech trees and conifers. Doing so presents the southern side of the Matese falling in the municipality of San Lorenzo Maggiore, which for the morpho-soil land, has a more gentle and rounded where the human settlement of the land has formed an agricultural landscape caused by extensions of vineyards and olive groves.

HISTORY

The municipality of San Lorenzo Maggiore has been inhabited since prehistoric times as evidenced by several findings, including the famous "almond Chelles" now preserved in a museum in Paris. This specimen, found in 1915 in the "Filed", is a splinter of quartzite polished by primitive likely to quarter and skinning animals.

During the rule of the Lombards there is news of a first village called "Filed" and that was in the vicinity of the river Heat in the town still called by that name. Filed in 663 A.D. It was the scene of a major battle that saw challenge the troops of the Lombard Mittola, Count of Capua, with the army of the Byzantine emperor Constans II that remained defeated.

Around 1000 Limata, thanks to its strategic location, it became a thriving commercial center and experienced a rapid demographic change. With the coming of the Normans Limata became home favorite of accounts Sanframondo. Sanframondo William I, son of Raone, in a document dated 1151, translated in 1531 during a trial, he wrote "I Sancto Flaimundo William, son of the late Raone, I had to name de Sancto Framundo, of Norman race, I make known to possess many castles, including the castle said Limata, in the land of Telese; gift to Robert, prior of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grotta, a land at the river Heat. On 26 December 1382 the castle of Limata was home Louis I of Anjou, came to occupy the kingdom and to avenge the killing of Queen Joanna I of Naples. Sanframondo I had to provide for the provisioning of thousands of riders and horses. In the fifteenth century Limata passed to the accounts Carafa who kept it until the abolition of feudalism in 1806. The Carafa, who preferred to live in Naples, left the castle and what Limata procured, along with the stench from the nearby river Calore , the abandonment of the town which in 1570 saw the appointment of his latest pastor. Some refugee Limata retreated on the hills, thus founding the current San Lorenzo Maggiore in 1532 was inhabited by eighty families that grew to two hundred and six in 1595.

San Lorenzo was administered, like the other towns of southern Italy, from a Universitas whose council was made up of four citizens appointed every year in May by citizens landowners. The members of the council together with six other members elected annually also formed the Council. The meeting had to be authorized by the Governor or Viceconte which protected the interests of landowners and who resided in the county seat, in Cerreto Sannita. The earthquake of June 5, 1688 caused extensive damage to the country that was quickly rebuilt much that in 1724 there were 1700 inhabitants. After years of Italian unification, the municipality was concerned by some of the phenomena of banditry.

MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF INTEREST

The Borgo of "Limata"

Near C.da Piana south of the city center, in the "Limata" are the remains of the eponymous village whose origins can be traced back to 700 AD approx. Limata was an important strategic center for all forms of domination that followed, by the Lombards to the Normans, Swabians Angevins. For Limata transiting the Via Latin, one of the three arteries Roman indicated by Strabo as "nobilissimae viarum". The castle, built by Zottone I, first Duke of the Lombards in Benevento, dominated the Valley below and telesina, militarily speaking, was in his time the function to control and intercept all communications coming from the basin of Benevento, from Molise, from Maddaloni, dall'avvallamento of Montesarchio and dall'Alifano. In 663 A.D. filed was the scene of a major battle between the Emperor Constans II and the Lombards led by the Count of Capua Mittola. Around the year 1000, again because of its location, it became a thriving commercial core and had a rapid demographic change; with the advent of the Normans became the seat of Sanframondo that December 26, 1382 hosted in Limata Louis of Anjou. In the fifteenth century it passed to the Carafa and in later centuries began its downturn until the abandonment in favor of the New Village of San Lorenzo at the time called "Castrum Sancti Laurentii"

RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE

Collegiate Church of San Lorenzo

In the historic center, it was finished in 1417. In 1553 it was raised to collegiate and this was the subject of a series of expansions funded dall'Universitas and citizens . The altar from the church of S. Maria della Strada, is surrounded by the seventeenth-century wooden choir and is dominated by a painting of the martyrdom of San Lorenzo, performed in the eighteenth century by Francesco Mazzacca . Also interesting are the wooden sculpture of San Lorenzo, the bell tower ( 1661 ) and the altarpiece of the Madonna with Child and Saints Lawrence and loving .

In 1934 the collegiate church was visited by Prince Umberto II of Savoy, who was in the area to visit the Regiment of Lancers of Aosta engaged in maneuvers in the valley telesina .

Sanctuary and Convent of Santa Maria della Strada

According to legend, centuries ago the Madonna would have appeared to a pious woman inviting her to dig the place where the church stands today. At a depth of twelve palms he would have been found a small chapel with an image of the Virgin; removed the icon from the earth would begin to pour water considered miraculous. This chapel narrated in the legend is the crypt of the church, and in it there is a hole where flowed a spring of water, dried up in the twentieth century. Church and convent, abandoned in the nineteenth century, were recovered in the year 1990. The building houses the precious icon in the late Byzantine style depicting the Madonna and Child.

Church of San Bernardino

Built in the sixteenth century, it contains a statue of the saint known for his particular bill that dates back to the period of construction of the church. In the building there are works in marble Vitulano and a sink of 1596 wanted archpriest De Vincentis.

Church of the Annunciation or Ss. Name of God

Church of SS. Name of God Probably founded around 1550, it was restored and enlarged several times over the centuries. In 1876 it was decorated with plaster made by Donato Di Crosta of Cerreto. Of particular interest is the chapel of St. Catherine, built by the spouses Brizio-Cinquegrani and has four white marble statues (some stolen in 1976) depicting St. Catherine, St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Francis. Most notable is the sculpture of the Madonna of Health, very old, from Limata.

Festivals

San Lorenzo Maggiore festival 08-11 Agosto San Lorenzo Maggiore citizens participate in the penitential rite of nearby Guardia Sanframondi.

External links

San Lorenzo Maggiore .net - Photos, Articles and News (Italian)
San Lorenzo Maggiore (Italian)

Campania · Comuni of the Province of Benevento

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