How Was Campobasso Built

Campobasso is two towns with a century between them, stacked one above the other.

The castle

The Castello Monforte was rebuilt in 1450 by Nicola II Monforte after an earthquake destroyed the earlier fortress, on foundations that are older again. It is square, plain and military, with the family arms over the gate, and it was built to hold a hill rather than to be lived in.

The Borgo Antico

Below the castle the medieval town climbs in stepped lanes of local stone, tight and steep, laid out to be defended. Much of it was abandoned as the new city grew and parts are still empty.

Two Romanesque churches

San Bartolomeo, from the twelfth or thirteenth century, is severe grey limestone with a carved portal; San Giorgio, older still, sits higher up and is the oldest church in the city.

The Bourbon grid

From 1814 the new Campobasso was laid out below on level ground, with straight streets, uniform block heights and public buildings around squares — a piece of rational town planning almost unique in the region.

Villa de Capoa

The garden was laid out in the nineteenth century on a monastic property, with terraces, statuary and exotic trees, and is the best surviving piece of that period in the city.

The 1805 earthquake

The shock of that year damaged the old town badly and accelerated the move downhill. A good deal of what stands in the borgo today is a repair of that period rather than the medieval fabric it resembles.

Since the war

The city grew outward in concrete along the ridges, quickly and without much planning, which is what the view from the castle mostly shows.