Telese Terme, called simply Telese until 1991,
/ref> is a city, ''

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 ...

'' (municipality) and former episcopal seat in the

Province of Benevento The province of Benevento () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Benevento. Geography The province has an area of 2,071 km2, and, as of 2017, a population of 279,127. There are 78 '' ...

, in the

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

region of 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 ...

. It is located in the valley of the Calore, well known for its sulfuric

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

Etymology

Telesia is an old word for the gem

Sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

History

Telese was an ancient Samnite (Italic) city, known as T(h)elesia.

Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...

captured the city in 217 BCE; later, the victorious Roman general

Scipio Africanus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (, , ; 236/235–) was a Roman general and statesman who was one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Ancient Carthage, Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the greatest milit ...

founded a Roman colony there. In 460, a Diocese of Telese / Thelesina (Latin adjective) was established. Having fallen into decay after the Gothic War, it was conquered by the

Longobards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a 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 between 787 and 796) t ...

, becoming part of the Lombard

Duchy of Benevento A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between "sovereign ...

as the seat of a gastaldry (district). Saracens destroyed the city in 847 and 860, and again in the 11th century, during the war between King

Roger II of Sicily Roger II or Roger the Great (, , Greek language, Greek: Ρογέριος; 22 December 1095 – 26 February 1154) was King of Kingdom of Sicily, Sicily and Kingdom of Africa, Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon, C ...

and the Norman counts of the southern Italian mainland. A new Telesia was built; however, it was again pulverized in 1349, this time by an

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

. Its former cathedral ''cattedrale Santa Croce'', dedicated to the Holy Cross, now in ruins, was decommissioned after the bishops transferred their see to nearby

Cerreto Sannita Cerreto Sannita (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: , ''Cerrìte'' in the Cerretese dialect, International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) is an Comune (Italy), Italian comune with a population of 3,539 inhabitants located in the Province of Beneven ...

, yet the see retained the alternative title Diocese of Telese as well, even after a further merger into the Diocese of Cerreto Sannita–Telese–Sant’Agata de’ Goti. In 1883, after the

Unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century Political movement, political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, annexation of List of historic states of ...

thermal bath A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring (hydrology), spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and Hot spring, ...

s were built, hence the current full name Telese ''Terme'' since 1991. Telese became an independent commune in 1934.

Main sights

It possesses remains of walls in , of a total length of over a mile; two inscriptions of the Republican period record the erection of towers. The remains of baths () and of an amphitheatre still exist; the city was supplied with water by an aqueduct. There are sulphur springs in the vicinity, which may have supplied the baths.

References

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Etymology

History

Main sights

See also

References