Benevento (Beneviénte in Benevento dialect) is an Italian town of
58 418 inhabitants, capital of the province of the same name in
Campania.
Initially called Maloenton by the native
Osco-Samnite populations, and then renamed by the ancient Romans
first Maleventum and finally Beneventum, the city boasts a
conspicuous historical-artistic and archaeological heritage, the
result of the various dominations and affiliations that followed one
another over the course of its history. Since June 2011 the church
of Santa Sofia, built in 760 by the Lombard duke Arechi II, became
part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site within the Lombard serial
site in Italy: the places of power. The symbol of the city is the
Arch of Trajan which is one of the best preserved Roman triumphal
arches with reliefs. It is the seat of the archdiocese of Benevento.
The city is located in the Apennine hinterland of
Campania, in the southern part of the historical region of Sannio,
in a position almost equidistant from the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic
seas.
It is located in a basin surrounded by hills; to the
west in particular, beyond the Vitulanese Valley, is the Taburno
Camposauro massif: its peaks, seen from the city, draw the
silhouette of a lying woman, known as the "Dormiente del Sannio".
From the highest part of the city you can see the peaks of Mount
Mutria del Matese to the north-west, the high curtain of Partenio
with Mount Avella to the south and the appendages of the Dauni
mountains to the east.
The city is crossed by two rivers: the
Calore, a tributary of the Volturno, and the Sabato, which flows
into the Calore in the Pantano district, just west of the city
center.
The territory on which the city extends is rather
undulating. In fact, its center rises on a hill in the middle of the
valley, and some districts rise on other surrounding hills. The
average height above sea level is 135 m, with a minimum of 80 m and
a maximum of 495 m, equal to an excursion of 415 m.
Benevento has a typically Mediterranean climate, with an average
annual temperature of 15.8 ° C. The average temperature of the
coldest month (January) is 7.1 ° C, that of the hottest month (July)
is 26.5 ° C. In winter, snowfalls occur annually, while summer is
rather sultry with periodic heat waves: for example, on 18 July 1884
the temperature reached 42 ° C. The humidity in winter is on average
72% and in summer 57%.
However, the climate of Benevento has
more continental features than that of the maritime type of the
Tyrrhenian coast and the Campania plain. In the winter semester the
temperature is generally lower; fog, frost and sometimes frost (with
temperatures a few degrees below zero) are relatively more frequent.
The disturbed currents coming from the Tyrrhenian Sea meet in
Irpinia the first Apennine bulwarks (the Partenio mountains), behind
which there is a band of rain shadow, so that Benevento receives a
much lower amount of rain than other much rainier areas of Campania
, such as western Irpinia, Salerno and part of Casertano.
The lower area of Benevento is subject to floods. The
most recent occurred on October 15, 2015.
Flood of Benevento
in 1949
On 2 October the rains swelled the Benevento catchment
area (in particular the Calore river) beyond its limit, which still
bore signs of the Second World War. new river flow caused by the
narrowing of the bed. Thus it was that the same bridge became a real
dam, pouring the flow of the river through the streets of the city.
Even then the areas of the Pantano and of the Ponticelli district
were the most affected in addition to the railway district. About
twenty deaths and extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure
weighed on the resurgent city economy, which was once again
irremediably compromised.
Flood of Benevento of 15 October
2015
The main causes are the abundant rains that have fallen on
the Samnite soil, which has reached saturation, i.e. the inability
to absorb more water, the watercourse that has created greater
disruption to the populations of Benevento was still the Calore
river which has reached levels full unheard of thanks also to the
poor state of its riverbed bringing to its knees the entire Sannio,
Benevento and neighboring municipalities. The damages estimated at
around € 121 million were manifold, starting from the agricultural
sector, literally devastated by this event, then serious damage was
suffered by the farms and the industrial sector. There were two
victims. One, caused by the flood of the Tammaro (a tributary of the
Calore river), was a seventy-year-old lady from Pago Veiano (BN),
overwhelmed by the waters. The second victim caused by the flood of
Calore, a man from Varoni di Montesarchio, who was overwhelmed by
trying to free the basement from the mud. The areas most affected by
the flood were c.da Pantano, q.re Ponticelli, industrial area Ponte
Valentino.