Macchia Valfortore is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

Province of Campobasso The province of Campobasso (; ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Molise region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Campobasso. It covers an area of and has a total population of 223,871 (2017). There are 84 ''comuni'' (: ''comune'') in ...

Molise Molise ( , ; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. Until 1963, it formed part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise together with Abruzzo. The split, which did not become effective until 1970, makes Molise the newest region in Ital ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. With a population of 470 inhabitants. The town overlooks Lake Occhito. Neighbouring comuni are Sant'Elia a Pianisi and

Pietracatella Pietracatella is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Campobasso, in the Italian region of Molise, located about east of Campobasso. Pietracatella borders the municipalities of Gambatesa, Jelsi, Macchia Valfortore, Sant'Elia a Pianis ...

History

In 216 BC, a

Roman army The Roman army () served ancient Rome and the Roman people, enduring through the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (509–27 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC–AD 1453), including the Western Roman Empire (collapsed Fall of the W ...

under consul

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

camped in the town called ''Maccla'', thought to be this town, prior to marching to the defeat against Hannibal at the

Battle of Cannae The Battle of Cannae (; ) was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Ancient Carthage, Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and ...

. In 476 AD with the

Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...

weakening, Maccla was occupied by the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...

. In the early Middle Ages it was a possession of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

, who held it until 982, when they were defeated by the Byzantines. On September 21, 1701, Gaetano Giacomo Gambacorta, styled the Prince of Macchia, started a conspiracy ( Macchia Conspiracy), against the Spanish viceroy in Naples. The revolt was quickly put down and Gaetano fled to Vienna, Austria where he died on January 27, 1703. In 1800

Joseph Bonaparte Joseph Bonaparte (born Giuseppe di Buonaparte, ; ; ; 7 January 176828 July 1844) was a French statesman, lawyer, diplomat and older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. During the Napoleonic Wars, the latter made him King of Naples (1806–1808), an ...

, King of Naples and Napoleon's brother, divided Naples into new administrative orders. This created the

which Macchia is located to this day. The suffix Valfortore was added in the 19th century.

Symbols

The municipal coat of arms depicts a tower and a cow in the upper part, symbol of the agricultural nature of the community; in the lower part are reproduced the three ancient gates of access to the town. The

gonfalon The gonfalon, gonfanon, gonfalone (from the early Italian ''confalone'') is a type of heraldic flag or banner, often pointed, swallow-tailed, or with several streamers, and suspended from a crossbar in an identical manner to the ancient Roman v ...

is a blue cloth.

Main sights

*Church of San Nicola: 16th century church with 12 busts of Saints made of wood created by Giacomo Colombus of Naples. *Cinelli Palace *Monument to the Fallen *Monument of Padre Pio

References

Cities and towns in Molise {{Molise-geo-stub