Paolisi

Paolisi is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Benevento in the Italian region Campania, located about 35 km northeast of Naples and about 20 km southwest of Benevento.

Municipality of Paolisi

History of the Municipality

Culture, which has always characterized the Paolisani in the Caudina Valley, represents the tool capable of pushing young people to study and to make Paolisi known to all those who have always ignored even its existence.

Paolisi, once called Paolise, as can be seen from Alfonso Meomartini's notes in "The Municipalities of the province of Benevento", is located on a deviation of the Appian Highway.

Traveling along this road from Naples to Benevento, when you reach Arpaia, you come across an avenue of about two kilometers that leads to Paolisi. The town is pleasant and rises at the foot of the mountain range

Partenio mountain range. It is rich in chestnut groves that close the Caudina Valley.

Paolisi does not have a large horizon and is not visible from the other municipalities that surround it, since the mountains that surround it are full of tall and thick trees.

It borders Arpaia, Ariola, Bonea, Rotondi, Cervinara and is located almost in the center of the Caudina valley: it is, in fact, about 28 km from Caserta and about 26 from Benevento.

It stands at almost 270 meters. above sea level and covers an area of 607 hectares. The

it overlooks Mount Paraturo (927 m). The agricultural products it can boast of are cereals, fruit, poplar and chestnut woods and sour grapes, from which an excellent wine is made.

Paolisi, in its historical events, always follows the feudal fate of Arpaia. It was owned by the Stendardo, Boffa, Della Leonessa families and then by the Guevara, Comite, Palavano, Caraffa,

Ceva, Grimaldi, Carafa di Maddaloni, Caracciolo di Airola and finally by the Royal Court. The territory of Paolisi is adjacent to the historical site of the Caudine Forks; the site where the ancient Romans were defeated by the Samnite people. After having set an ambush for the imperial army in the Forchia-Arpaia gorge, the Samnites forced the Romans to surrender after which, to taunt them, they forced them to bow by making them pass under a gallows.

Other sources report that the Romans were surrounded in Paolisi, near the Isclero river, where finds from an ancient Roman camp (imperial age) were found.

The following figure represents this event.

Among its antiquities, in addition to the numerous palaces, it included the Badia di

S.Fortunato located in "oppido Paulisiorum", formerly a commandery of Cardinals. The term Paolisi meets

for the first time

in the 9th century in the form of Paulisi, probably from pau p pagus, like Paupisi. The adjectival inflection "paolisi" leads us to believe that

its inhabitants come from a Pagus. From reading the "chronicon"

of the parish of S.Andrea Apostolo

of Paolisi it is clear that in the past

many gave up locating

Paolisi, the ancient Pauna of the Irpinia people.

This is to be considered a gross error, since, as Meomartini carefully states, Paolisi is not far from Caudio and therefore located in the Caudina Valley. Pauna, on the other hand, belonged to the Irpinian Samnites and therefore was in Irpinia.

The oldest news regarding our town is found in the chronicle of Svincenzo al Volturno and specifically in Radeprando's will from the year 800 (page 375 at Muratori). 2

In fact, with his will, Radeprando, dated 31 January 1800, donated to the Benedictine Abbey "inelitam curtem meam, quan habeo in finibus caudetanis in finibus Paulisi cum duos servos meos qui quidam ordinati esse videntur uno nome Dominico cumuxore sua nominame Audelina et Ursulo cum uxore sua Guadiperga, cum filiis et filobus suis, atque nepotibus et cum cespitibus ipsorum" However, there is news of this will only in the year 880 (Ostiense chronicle page 220), when Abbot Aligerno of Montecassino "in Valle quoque de Caudis loco Paulisi, de ecclesia S. Andrea et omnibus relevances eius libellum fecet quidam Leoni Prsbytero et Johanni Vgenco pro xentis et servitisi eorum".

We ignore, however, how the Abbey of S. Fortunato, located "in oppido Paulisiorum", given in commendation to Cardinals, probably built with the goods donated to S. Vincenzo al Volturno in the 19th century, is now in the territory of Arpaia. It certainly became part of the territory of Arpaia when Paolisi was elevated to the rank of autonomous municipality in 1861. In fact, before that date, although in the archdiocese of Benevento, it was an annex and a farmhouse in Arpaia. For this reason he is not mentioned neither in the catalog of the Norman barons nor in the tax register of 1320.

Also as the hamlet of Arpaia it belonged to the Ultra Principality and in the numbers of the Kingdom it was called Arpaia-Paolise. It was first the land of the Caudini, then of the colony of Claudio. Subsequently it belonged to the duchy and

principality of Benevento. It was entrusted to the Cervinara district at the beginning of the 19th century, when it still depended on the province of the Ultra Principality. It then passed to the province of Caserta. Finally included in the district, now the district of Airola, it was aggregated to the province of Benevento. The territory is very fertile, but the real wealth is the chestnut woods. The extension of the whole

common is little. Jamalio in "The Queen of Sannio" quantifies it at 607 hectares. The entire territory was owned mostly by local families: Bifani, Lanni, Landolfi, Rotoli, Bove, Tirone, Federici, Pessetti.

Jamalio provides us with some more significant data. Paolisi in 1640 had 71 families. In 1789 the inhabitants were 1338. In the 1901 census the inhabitants were 2003. Currently the inhabitants are 1814.

The glory and pride of Paolisi was Francesco Bove, born in 1803, an excellent lawyer of the Naples Court, who had a reputation as a distinguished jurist.

He was elected deputy to the Italian Parliament in 1865 and was reconfirmed until 1876. He died in Naples in 1884, when now old in years, but not in spirit, he had to surrender to life. He is the man pictured alongside, with the white hair, who had written on the nullity of unregistered deeds and on the civil code, who had given a learned report on the bill for the exercise of the professions of lawyers and prosecutors, he avoided from any recognition. His motto was: ITALY, LAW, FREEDOM, PROGRESS!

The arrival of electricity caused a great stir in the Caudina Valley.

A son of Paolisi, the engineer, Carlo Petrella, after graduating in Liège, encouraged by his family and eager to implement his skills, after he brought electric light to Paolisi in Acireale and Cervinara. The celebrations were sumptuous at the Tirone palace. In "La vita del Sannio" of December 1914 we find it written: "Yet another celebration of civilisation, yet another building stone in the great temple of progress in our province". And again "On the initiative of the diligent Engineer Petrella, Paolisi has taken a big step on the path to civilization. Its streets flooded with light seem to smile happily at the auspicious event"

On that occasion the illustrious prefect, comm. Muffone was welcomed, together with his two daughters Teresa and Giacinta, at the station, by the Mayor, by the secretary, by the entire city council, by the Engineer. Petrella and Chancellor Landolfi. The procession was preceded by the musical concert of S. Felice a Cancello.

The speech was delivered by Dr. Rooster. The words were beautiful, heartfelt and highly applauded. The Dr. Gallo concluded thus: "May its splendor merge all souls and hearts in a single loyal, honest intent: the good of the country. And so may our dear Paolisi, with head held high, progress on the path of that civilization in which it has never been second".

3

Until 1920-30 Paolisi was full of professionals. In fact, out of a population of around 2000 inhabitants, there were 80 professionals practicing their profession at the same time. It also counts among its inhabitants a rustic poet: Matteo Caglioone. The oldest people in the country still remember it.

Matteo CAglione, despite being an illiterate and goatherd, was noted for his compositional originality. The spiritual interiority that emerged from his highly original improvised verses was profound. Caglione's verses constitute a phenomenon and denote a natural quality of that singular intellect that peeks out beneath the rough shepherd's robe. Another illustrious name was the lawyer. Nicola Tirone, provincial councilor, upright administrator. A plaque perpetuates his memory near the

his birthplace.

Paolisi certainly dates back to a very ancient era. Some finds found near the Isclero river suggest a "village on stilts". This, however, turned out not to be true. The Dr. Franciosi, a very clear archaeologist, illustrating the finds, reported that the "vertical trunks" found did not belong to an ancient village on stilts, but rather constituted a piling to regulate the flow of the water.

The only real find, preserved in the Montesarchio deposits, is a piece of bone spindle dating back, without a shadow of a doubt, to the Roman era and more precisely to the Imperial era. It would be desirable for the competent authorities to open excavations in order to bring to light the ancient civilization that occupied our territory in the past. Via Faenza and along the course of the Pauline Church are ideal places for finds. This is already inherent in the naming of places.

Without wanting to make a useless display of erudition, the street called "Faenza" was certainly the place where the remains of the terracotta vases and the isclero were thrown as "rubbish", if the semantic "ischia" or "isca" is true, it is the path taken by the waters around "islands".

This makes us understand that primitive peoples inhabited those places, because in those sites, and only in those sites, they could defend themselves from dangers and could find sustenance for their "family" through fishing. In fact, who does not remember the fish, the eels, the capitoni, the frogs of Isclero? Even in the ecclesiastical field, Paolisi boasts illustrious names.

In the book "historical memories of the city of S. Agata dei Goti" we find on page. 74 among the Bishops of S.Agata a "Joannes VII Guevara episcopus" with this information: Giovanni Guevara, Neapolitan patrician, son of Alfonso Guevara and Giovanna CAntella, of the lords of ARpaia, as curate of the parish of S.Tommaso Apostolo of Paolise was elected bishop of S.Agata on 19 June 1523. He ruled this diocese for about 33 years. He accomplished great things. He died of apoplexy on 35 August 1556.

Most likely the aforementioned Guevara must have been the parish priest of S.Andrea and retained some title relating to S.Thomas, since at the time of the Guevaras, S.Thomas was a hermitage and was established as a parish in a later period.

Paolisi had a strong demographic increase around 1940, when it had 3250 inhabitants. Since that date, however, the population has continued to decline.

The main activity to which the population is dedicated is agriculture, however there are three companies in the area: Ortopedia Sannitica, Avicola Mauro and MIXIM for audiovisual productions.

The craftsmanship that once flourished in quantity and above all in quality is now practically non-existent. Paolisi has three restaurants, one of which is also a hotel, two bars and some clubs. Among the latter there is the Labor club which carries out purely sporting activities. Paolisi boasts a sporting tradition, among the most valid in the Caudina Valley. Who doesn't remember Pasquale Carbone and Arcangelo Bove, the two spearheads of cycling in our land?

In the 1940s Carbone won the Sannio tour by a wide margin. He also won an Atellana cup; Atellana Cup which the following year Bartali Coppi Leone competed against, while

Carbone came in fourth. He was praised in the Tripolitana tour and participated as an "independent" in a tour of Italy. After Carbone, Bove, whose sporting godfather was Guerra. But in memory of these two athletes the words of a newspaper of the time are reported: "Pearl of Valle Caudina, from where the good cycling propaganda will radiate for the entire area which exalts in Arcangelo Bove and Pasquale Carbone.

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Faithful to this high tradition, organized by the Labor club, Paolisi hosted the Italian Alievi road championship on 10 July 1983. The number of participants was impressive. Welcoming, beyond words, were Paolisi and its inhabitants.

Perhaps Paolsi fits Bruno Raschi's poetry well:

"...Then God created the bicycle so that man could use it as an instrument of toil

and exaltation in the arduous

itinerary of life..." Our country was not only a land of politicians, scholars, prelates, administrators, poets and athletes. Paolisi was also a land of heroes. At the fall of the fascist government, 25 July 1943, and the pressure of the Anglo-American troops was accompanied by acts that cannot be described, carried out by the retreating German troops. Hitler's troops retreated, sowing fear, destruction and death everywhere. All the road junctions, the bridges, many houses, they were destroyed and blown up to hinder or at least delay the advance of the allies. Every country experienced its tragic hour and Paolisi was not exempt from it. Perhaps humanity has never experienced such tragic and frightening hours. July 25, 1943 it is a date not to be forgotten.

Paolisi was garrisoned by a detachment of German soldiers. Due to the attitude of the Italian government, after the fall of fascism, the Germans issued edicts and ordinances against the population. The Nazis, after occupying the rectory, committed acts of indescribable ferocity and unspeakable cynicism.

The oldest people in the town say that in those hours of tragedy the German troops played football while eating the skulls of the poor dead.

Following an edict which ordered all the men of Paolisi, from 18 to 50 years old, to report to the German command to be assigned to auxiliary work, all the Paolisans took refuge in the mountains.

As chance would have it, in October 1943 a German soldier was found wounded in the head. Since the law of reprisal had been enacted, for that "crime" ten men from Paolisi were taken to be shot if the culprit did not appear. How could those ten innocent people reveal a name if they didn't know who the culprit was?

However, to save himself a name was named: Fortunato Bove, guilty only of being a poor lunatic. The German captain, holding the hostages in front of the Church for execution, went with a squad to the Bove's house. Here, however, they found his brother Eugenio, sane and married with children. Without hearing reasons and without ascertaining his identity, he was shot dead with a gunshot to the back of the head. One innocent life had saved ten other innocent lives!

The dawn of October 4, 1943 brought peace, serenity and the joy of living back to the people of Paolisi, as the first allied troops began to arrive. For the record, it must be added that there were also acts of intolerance: the engineer Luciano Gallo, accused of treason and collaboration, was the victim of popular anger.

An event that makes the people of Paolisi proud in recent times was the visit to Paolisi, on 12-21-1991, of the President of the Italian Republic Framcesco Cossiga. The president arrived in our town on the occasion of the inauguration of the renovated church of S. Tommaso. Before him, only two other historical precedents: Einaudi and Saragat had visited Sannio. The rest is present.