Infobox CityIT
img_coa = Isernia-Stemma.png official_name = Comune di Isernia
region = Molise
province = Isernia (IS)
elevation_m = 423
area_total_km2 = 68.74
population_as_of = December 31, 2004
population_total = 21500
population_density_km2 = 313
timezone = CET, UTC+1
coordinates = coord|41|36|N|14|14|E|display=inline,title
frazioni = Acquazolfa, Bazzoffie, Breccelle, Capruccia, Castagna, Castelromano, Colle de' Cioffi, Colle Martino, Colle Pagano, Collecroci, Conocchia, Coppolicchio, Fragnete, Marini, Salietto, Valgianese
telephone = 0865
postalcode = 86170
gentilic = Isernini
saint = Saint Pope Celestine V
day = May 19
mayor = Avv. Gabriele Melogli
website = [http://www.comune.isernia.it www.comune.isernia.it]
Isernia (Latin: Aesernia or, in Pliny and later writers, Eserninus, or in the Antonine Itinerary, Serni; Greek: polytonic|Αἰσερνία) is a town and comune in the central Italian region of Molise, and the capital of Isernia province. Isernia is a flourishing center of pasta makers, stone masons, and embroidery crafts.
Geography
Situated on a rocky crest rising from 350 m to 475 m between the Carpino and the Sordo rivers, the plan of Isernia still reflects the ancient layout of the Roman town, with a central wide street, the "cardo maximus", still represented by Corso Marcelli, and side streets at right angles on both sides.
The commune of Isernia includes 16 frazioni. The most densely populated is Castelromano which is positioned in a plain at the base of the La Romana mount (862 m), 5 km far from Isernia.
History
The area of Isernia was settled at least 700,000 years ago: the nearby site called "Pineta" has been cited in the magazine "Science" as the most ancient site where traces of use of fire by men have been found.
The city's Roman name, "Aesernia", reflects probably a former Samnite toponym, but a connection to an Indo-European root, "aeser", which means "water", is tenuous.
Classical Aesernia was a city of Samnium, included within the territory of the Pentri tribe, situated in the valley of the Vulturnus (modern Volturno), on a small stream flowing into that river, and distant 22 km from Venafrum (modern Venafro). The Itinerary (in which the name is written "Serni") places it on the road from Aufidena to Bovianum, at the distance of 28 M.P. from the former, and 18 from the latter; but the former number is corrupt, as are the distances in the Tabula Peutingeriana. (Itin. Ant. p. 102; Tab. Peut.; Plin. iii. 12. 17; Ptol. iii. 1. § 67; Sil. Ital. viii. 568.)
The first mention of it in history occurs in 295 BCE, at which time it had already fallen into the hands of the Romans, together with the whole valley of the Vulturnus. (Livy x. 31.) After the complete subjugation of the Samnites, a colony, with Latin rights (colonia Latina) was settled there by the Romans in 264 BCE the city, a key communication center between southern Italy and the inner Appennine Regions. This colony is again mentioned in 209 BCE as one of the eighteen which remained faithful to Rome at the most trying period of the Second Punic War. (Liv. "Epit." xvi. xxvii. 10; Vell. "Pat." i. 14.) During the Social War it adhered to the Roman cause, and was gallantly defended against the Samnite general Vettius Cato, by Marcus Claudius Marcellus, nor was it till after a long protracted siege that it was compelled by famine to surrender, 90 BCE. Henceforth it continued in the hands of the confederates; and at a later period of the contest afforded a shelter to the Samnite leader, Papius Mutilus, after his defeat by Lucius Cornelius Sulla. It even became for a time, after the successive fall of Corfinium (modern (Corfinio) and Bovianum, the headquarters of the Italic League. (Liv. "Epit." lxxii, lxxiii.; Appian "B.C." i. 41, 51; Diod. xxxvii. Exc. Phot. p. 539; Sisenna ap. Nonium, p. 70.) At this time it was evidently a place of importance and a strong fortress, but it was so severely punished for its defection by Sulla after the final defeat of the Samnites in 84 BCE, that Strabo speaks of it as in his time utterly deserted. (Strab. v. p. 238, 250.)
We learn, however, that a colony was sent there by Julius Caesar, and again by Augustus; but apparently with little success, on which account it was recolonized under Nero. It never, however, enjoyed the rank of a colony, but appears from inscriptions to have been a municipal town of some importance in the time of Trajan and the Antonines. To this period belong the remains of an aqueduct and a fine Roman bridge, still visible; while the lower parts of the modern walls present considerable portions of polygonal construction, which may be assigned either to the ancient Samnite city, or to the first Roman colony. The modern city is still the see of a bishop. ("Lib. Colon." pp. 233, 260; Zumpt, "de Coloniis", pp. 307, 360, 392; Inscrr. ap. Romanelli, vol. ii. pp. 470, 471; Craven's "Abruzzi", vol. ii. p. 83; Hoare's "Classical Tour", vol. i. p. 227.) The massively constructed podium now unlying the cathedral probably supported the Capitolium.
Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, Isernia has suffered destruction numerous times in history. Isernia was destroyed by the Saracens in 800, sacked by Markward of Anweiler, Count of Molise, in 1199, and set on fire in 1223 by the soldiers of Frederick II. In 1519 it was freed from feudal servitude by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and became a free city.
Earthquakes in 847, 1349, 1456 and 1805 caused massive destruction.
On the morning of September 10, 1943, during World War II, American planes launched their bombs from B-17 Flying Fortress planes over a crowded town on market day causing thousands of deaths.Fact|date=February 2007 In the following weeks they came back twelve times without ever hitting their targets: the bridges of Isernia, Cardarelli and Santo Spirito, then built entirely of iron, towards the internal area. All the bridges were vital to the German retreat.
In 1970 Isernia became the capital of the homonymous province, created out of part of the province of Campobasso.
Coinage
The coins of Aesernia, which are found only in copper, and have the legend "AISERNINO", belong to the period of the first Roman colony; the style of their execution attests the influence of the neighboring Campania. (Millingen, "Numismatique de l'Italie," p. 218.)
Main sights
Although having been object of repeated destruction, Isernia preserves a large number of monuments of fairly good archaeological interest. The historical center still keeps intact the spare map structure of the Roman cities: in fact it represents the largest raced Marcelli street, around which there is an infinity of alleys and little spares, as for example, "Trento e Trieste" spares. The famous Fraterna Fountain is the main symbol in this town and it was built in the 13th century : it is made up of living- stone's slabs coming from ruined Roman monuments, while all the rest is a work of local masters, as it was built by the Rampini family in Isernia.
La Pineta
Isernia is also known for the archaeological excavation located within its borders, at Isernia La Pineta. Isernia La Pineta contains thousands of bones and stone tools covering 24,000 square yards. It was discovered in 1979, by an amateur naturalist noticed a bone sticking out of the side of a cut that had been created by the construction of the Napoli-Vasto motorway. The site was clearly created by humans, but its purpose is still unknown. The man who lived there was called "Homo Aeserniensis".[Novaresio, Paolo (1996). "The Explorers". Stewart, Tabori & Chang, NY ISBN 1-55670-495-X p. 14 "In 1979 an amateur naturalist was passing the construction site for the Napoli-Vasto motorway ... object protruding from a wall ... thousands of bones and stone tools piled up in an area of over 24,000 square yards. ... Evidence of human activity is incontrovertible"] ]Castelromano
The largest fraction and populated (500 inhabitants approx.) Castelromano which is situated in a plateau at the foot of Mount La Romana (882 m) at an altitude of 680 m above sea level, about 5 km west of the city.
While fall in the municipality of Isernia, Castelromano differs significantly from the provincial capital for history, tradition and customs.
The origin of the place is very old. It still has three impressive masonry walls placed to defend a fortified settlement (oppida) and an entrance off about 4 meters still visible where the road surface, dating to the third century BC centuries And IV BC , Inhabited by tribes of Samnites Pentra and identified by several sources, with the name of Cominium, conquered by the Roman stronghold in the Samnite Wars as reported in the Latin historian Titus Livius Ab Urbe Condita. The village, which occupied the flat area on the slopes of the mountain, was defended by walls polygonal, well identifiable on the east side, while the west side was protected by a natural overhang. This is the first structure identifies, near the door, a doubling of the walls on different levels. To the south of the village, in the locality of the Cross, a second walls protected the burial ground with dozens of graves, currently only partially investigated. A third fortress at the top of Mount delimited an area rich in archaeological material affiorante. The walls are made with large boulders sbozzati and more or less square, overlapping with some regularity, with irregular flakes in the interstices. The east wall is reinforced with blocks at the rounded stone set against the embankment. There are obvious signs of an event that war has affected the top of the mountain "La Romana, in fact emerge to the surface numerous pieces of pottery, bricks and tiles and the vastness of the area affecting give us an idea of land by the tribe Samnite pentra. Some theories formulated by reliable scholars of the capital pentro say that the entire tribe, which popolava territory that extends from the valley until the Matese mountains of Mainarde, took refuge inside the fortified walls under the looming threat of the Rome.
In the highest part of the mountain are still visible remains of a stone structure probably used as a watch tower, clearly visible from such a structure located approximately 1 km away in the area of "Old Earth" in the municipality of ricadente Macchia D'Isernia .
The current village, located about 500 m. South of the ruins sannitiche stems from a settlement military source called Lombard Armagnum initially populated by a few settlers. The name "Armagnum" comes from the Lombard "Harimann" by the army or man-Heer, and army-Mann, man. The arimanni groups were free men with full civil rights, not subject to slavery, which is placed at the service of king or duke to cover the needs of defense of the kingdom Lombard, more requests in areas subject to the invasions of Slavs and Avars. They were allocated land close to cities or in strategic locations, who will grow and defend. The arimanni were organized into brigades, Arimannie, which normally gravitavano around a fortified centre more importantly, the castrum, which was the core of the whole defensive system. Over time and then changed the name to "Castro Armannum", then "Castro Armani", and then "La Romana" from the contraction of the term "armani. Only in the last century the town has acquired its current name which therefore has nothing to do with survival of Roman origins.
The news most remote historically documented, dating to the time of Norman domination.
Armagnum is mentioned for the first time in Catalogus Baronum (1150), which gave the feud with Roberto de Rocca, feudatory of Count Ugo Norman II Molhouse (or de Molinis or Molisio), Lord of Molise. A second confirmation of the place in the Norman period, is given by an account written by the Bishop Lucio on the status and possessions of the diocese (1192) in which it says that the people of Armana is venerated the Holy Cross. Further quote you in a literary source autorevolissima about tenth paid for the year 1309 in the Diocese of Isernia where it is reported a quote where the Archpriest of Castro Armani undertakes to pay its part.
Considered as a fund rustic, the town and the territory of Castelromano were repeatedly transferred as latifundium until 1418 when James, Baron of the Family of Montaquila, appointed bishop, it came into possession of the feud, it gave as a gift to Mensa bishop of the Curia of Isernia that has belonged to the disappearance of feudality (1811) but that part has kept up at the beginning of the twenty-first when the current inhabitants have redeemed the remaining part of the feud. The bishop was then, right, Baron de La Romana and fregiava heraldic title of "Dominum Feudi Romanae.
Following numerous epidemics that falcidiarono the population with the current'600 settlement was ripolato by families from neighbouring territories Miranda, Forli del Sannio and Roccasicura.
In 1702 he was the parish church built by Msgr. Biagio Manufacturing. Castelromano is still home parish, and the patron is the Most Holy Saviour celebrated on August 6. Its patron is to tell a funny anecdote. Around the middle of 1800, one of the inhabitants, returning from a neighbouring locality, he found a wooden statue of the Blessed in a dry stream in, in that seat abandoned by the inhabitants of that country as rea not protect crops from the hail and decided to bring it to the back of a mule in thin newly restored mother church (1848) that was later dedicated to the Blessed indeed. In 1984, as a result of seismic events, the church has suffered serious injuries which have procured scrapping a few years later. The current church, which features modern and resumed the form of the ancient "pagliere" and is accompanied by a stylized bell that keeps the old bells.
Given the modest origins of the village, there are no architectural works of particular importance. The widespread and massive interventions restructuring and recovery building operated as a result of seismic events of 1984 have also helped to radically change the appearance of the oldest buildings masking the few architectural details then still visible. It retains, however, restored several times over the centuries (1802, 1924), Source, a wall fountain with 4 collection tanks fed by groundwater sources.
Not to forget the tradition of the Fire 'Vilia' (Eve), lit bonfires on the square in front of the parish church on the night between 24 and 25 December to light and heat symbolically the Holy Birth.
Notes
References
*SmithDGRG
* [http://icarus.umkc.edu/sandbox/perseus/pecs/page.72.a.php Richard Stillwell, ed. "Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites", 1976:] Aesernia (Isernia), Abruzzi e Molise, Italy"
