Montella is an Italian town and '' comune'' (municipality) in the

province of Avellino The Province of Avellino ( it, Provincia di Avellino) is a province in the Campania region of Southern Italy. The area is characterized by numerous small towns and villages scattered across the province; only two towns have a population over 20,0 ...

, Campania, with a population of 7,699. The zone was inhabited already in the neolithic period. The town was founded by the

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan-speaking people, who may have originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they for ...

in the 1st millennium BC, to become a municipality of the Roman Empire and a town under the Lombards.

Culture

Montella is a production center of chestnuts, and the comune organizes the Sagra Castagna di Montella (Montella Chestnut Festival) each fall. An eco-museum dedicated to the chestnut, the Museo della Castagna Montella, opened in 2014. Part of the comune of Montella is also encompassed by

Monti Picentini Regional Park The Monti Picentini Regional Park (Italian: ''Parco regionale Monti Picentini'') is a natural preserve in Campania, southern Italy. Geography It is based on the Monti Picentini chain, a dolomitic-limestone area in the provinces of Avellino and S ...

, a mountainous natural preserve in Campania which is host to many types of mushrooms as well as cave systems. The Convent of Saint Francis at Folloni is nearby. According to tradition, it was founded by Saint

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

in AD 1221-1222 when he was turned away from the town due to fears of leprosy. The saint and his fellow travelers slept under a tree and were miraculously protected from the snow. After this event, they founded the friary and it remains there today.

Twin towns

* Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA

People

Giovanni Palatucci Giovanni Palatucci (31 May 1909 – 10 February 1945) was an Italian police official who was long believed to have saved thousands of Jews in Fiume between 1939 and 1944 (current Rijeka in Croatia) from being deported to Nazi extermination ca ...

, a Righteous Among the Nations * Salvatore Pelosi, Italian naval officer * Aurelio Fierro, Italian singer * Geno Auriemma, American basketball coach * Leonarda Cianciulli, serial killer The grandparents of American actress Maria Bello came from Montella.

References

External links

Official website
Cities and towns in Campania {{Campania-geo-stub

Culture

Twin towns

People

See also

References

External links