Castello Monforte is the symbol of Campobasso: a massive stone quadrangle on top of the hill that towers over the city, at about 790 meters. From up there you can see the whole of Molise, and beyond.
It is named after Count Nicola II...
The church of San Giorgio is the oldest in Campobasso, and some say in the whole province: a Romanesque stone church in the upper part of the city, below Castello Monforte, dedicated to the patron saint.
It probably dates from the 10th...
The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity is Campobasso's most important church: a neoclassical temple with a portico of columns and a large triangular pediment, on the edge of the Murattian district, the new 19th-century town.
The stone...
The Samnite Museum, now the National Archaeological Museum of Campobasso, tells the story of the land of the Samnites, today's Molise, from prehistory to the early Middle Ages. It is housed in the 16th-century Palazzo Mazzarotta, in the heart of...
The church of San Bartolomeo is one of the oldest Romanesque buildings in Campobasso, built of large stone blocks in the mid-13th century, high up on the Monforte hill, next to the stairway that climbs to the castle and the remains of the...
The church of Sant'Antonio Abate is the Baroque masterpiece of Campobasso, in the historic center next to the old Porta Sant'Antonio. Outside it has a plain, plastered facade; inside, a single hall that glitters with gilded wood and 17th-century...
Palazzo San Giorgio is Campobasso's town hall, an elegant 19th-century building with a wide portico and a clock on top. It hides a secret: inside its walls is an entire church, almost invisible from outside.
The facade has three floors...
The Monument to Gabriele Pepe stands in the very center of Campobasso, in the square that bears the patriot's name, in the Murattian district. It is the work of the sculptor Francesco Jerace, from 1913. The Bank of Italy building, with its...
The Parco di Villa De Capua, the De Capoa public gardens, is Campobasso's historic garden, in the city center. Born as a monastery's medicinal herb garden, it is now a park of about 16,000 square meters, with avenues, evergreen hedges and large...
The Museo dei Misteri holds the heart of Campobasso's best-loved festival: the iron "ingegni" that, on Corpus Christi Sunday, carry children dressed as saints, angels and devils in procession, seeming to fly above the crowd.
In the main...
Palazzo Magno is the seat of the Province of Campobasso, on Via Roma: a 19th-century bourgeois villa with a sky-blue facade that, along its stairs and corridors, keeps a small collection of Molise art and history.
The most precious piece...
The church of San Leonardo is a medieval stone church in Campobasso's historic center, halfway between the castle and the city that grew up outside the walls. It was the main church of the medieval city.
You climb to the church by a double...
The church of Santa Maria della Croce is probably among the oldest churches in Campobasso, in a lane of the historic center next to Palazzo Mazzarotta, home of the Samnite Museum. It was the church of the Crusaders, one of the two rival...
Teatro Savoia is Campobasso's historic theater, next to the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity: an Italian-style hall from the 1920s, with four tiers of boxes, gilded stucco and large frescoes celebrating Molise and the Samnites.
Outside,...
The Convitto Nazionale Mario Pagano is Campobasso's historic school, an imposing building right in the city center, where children and teenagers still study today. It is worth a look for its long history and for its garden, rich in rare...
The Sanctuary of Maria Santissima del Monte, that is, the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, is Campobasso's Marian sanctuary: a stone church on top of the hill, right opposite Castello Monforte, linked to the young Padre Pio.
The facade is...
Palazzo Japoce is an 18th-century noble palace in Campobasso's old town, along the Salita San Bartolomeo that leads up toward the castle. It is worth a stop on the climb for its carved portal and the little square it opens onto.
It was...
Porta Sant'Antonio Abate is one of the surviving gateways in the medieval walls of Campobasso, on the west side of the old town, next to the church it is named after. It's a piece of the 15th century still standing among the houses.
The...
Porta Santa Cristina, also called Porta Mancina, is one of the surviving medieval gates of Campobasso, on the southeast side of the old town. Massive and still easy to recognize, it shows well how the old city was closed off and...
The Fondaco della Farina is a small open space in the old town of Campobasso, a few steps from the church of San Leonardo, inside the ring of the old walls. The name ("flour warehouse") says it all: the city's bread passed through here before it...
The Palazzo della Banca d'Italia is the Campobasso branch of Italy's central bank, on Piazza Gabriele Pepe, in the city's 19th-century center. It opened in 1925, in the years when Campobasso was giving itself its great public buildings.
It...
The church and convent of San Giovanni del Gelsi is one of the best-known Franciscan complexes in Molise, in Campobasso, in the San Giovanni neighborhood, at the entrance to the municipal cemetery. Off the routes through the center, it's worth...
Palazzo Cannavina is an aristocratic palace in the old town of Campobasso, on the street of the same name, between Largo San Leonardo and Vico Fondaco della Farina. Behind a sober facade it holds five centuries of changes of hands among the...
Torre Terzano is a medieval tower in the highest part of the old town of Campobasso, next to the Romanesque church of San Bartolomeo. It's the setting of the city's most famous love legend, a sort of Campobasso Romeo and Juliet.
Once...
Piazzetta Palombo is Campobasso's old market square, between Via Marconi and Via Palombo: an arcaded brick courtyard, intimate and a little hidden, a stone's throw from the Palazzo del Governo.
It opened in 1896 so that farmers from the...
Porta San Nicola, also called Porta Nuova, is one of the gates in the medieval walls of Campobasso, on the southwest side of the old town. Small but full of history, it is one of the six gates the city still carries on its coat of arms.
It...
Porta San Paolo, also called Porta di Rosa, is one of the surviving medieval gates of Campobasso, on the east side of the old town, near the climb up to the castle. Together with the tower beside it, it forms a single defensive...
The Torre dell'Abate Ginetti is one of the towers in the medieval walls of Campobasso, in the lower part of the old town. Sturdy and no-frills, it shows clearly how the old city's defenses were built.
The tower is made of irregular stone...
It's an alleyway called "Ponte di Bruschio" because it truly looks like a bridge, between the Santa Maria Maggiore ascent and the gate that leads out of old Campobasso.
Piazza dell'Olmo is a small square in the old town of Campobasso, among the stone alleys that climb toward the castle. It owes its name to an elm (olmo) that once grew here, and it's tied to a saying still alive in the city.
"Buying wine...