The  city  of  Benevento

Benevento is a charming town located in the Apennine hinterland of Campania, in the southern part of the Sannio and it has about 60,000 inhabitants. The city, located in a valley, is crossed by the Calore and Sabato rivers; to the west of the city there are the peaks of the Taburno-Camposauro massif, the Dormiente del Sannio, to the east, the slopes of the Dauni mountains, to the north-west, Monte Mutria and Matese, and to the south the Partenio. The city was first called Maleventum, then Beneventum and finally Benevento.
Benevento was first a Samnite, then Roman, later Lombard and finally pontifical city and therefore boasts a significant historical-artistic heritage and a notable archaeological heritage.

Benevento is an "UNESCO World Heritage Site", because of the Church of Santa Sofia, testimony of Lombard architecture and dated around 760, and of many historical  buildings and monuments.  The most important are:

• The Arch of Traiano is one of the most important monuments of the city. It was built in 114 A.D. at the behest of the senate and the Roman people to commemorate the optimus princeps and was finished in 117 A.D.

• the Leproso Bridge, another testimony of the Roman period of the city, is located on the river Sabato, connected the Via Appia to the city. 

• The Roman Theater, built by the Emperor Hadrian in 126 A.D., was subsequently enlarged by Caracalla between 200 and 210 A.D.. It has a diameter of 90 meters with a capacity of 10,000 spectators. Today the scene, the cavea and part of the three orders of arches are still preserved.

• The castle of Benevento, known by the name of Rocca dei Rettori, stands in the highest place in the whole city. The structure consists of two distinct bodies: the Torrione, built by the Lombards around 871, and the Palazzo del Governatori built by Pope John XII in 1321 to give a seat to its governors, the Rectors.

• The Cathedral of Benevento was the first Christian temple erected in the city, the oldest foundation dates back to the early 7th century. It was then enlarged in the 12th century, when the facade was built, in Pisan Romanesque style, with the bronze door, called the Janua Major; the Gothic bell tower was built in 1279. The Cathedral was further embellished in the 18th century, but during the Allied bombings of 1943 it was almost completely destroyed and was rebuilt, after the war, with five naves.

• In the medieval period, the Hortus conclusus was the vegetable garden inside the convent of the Dominican Fathers, today it is the seat, since 1992, of the installation of artist Mimmo Paladino, one of the most important exponents of the Transavantgarde. The most significant object of the installation is the bronze horse: placed on one of the surrounding walls, it wears a gold mask similar to that of Agamemnon.

• The Sannio Museum houses many artifacts from the Samnite, Lombard and Roman periods and numerous works belonging to the period from the 16th to the 20th century. Numerous artifacts from Ancient Egypt related to the cult of Isis are also preserved at the Sannio Museum.

• ARCOS, Sannio Contemporary Art Museum, inaugurated on 25 June 2005, is located in the basement of the Government Palace; in addition to housing a permanent exhibition, it often hosts thematic exhibitions.