Italian artworks

Standing upon a hill in the Sacco valley, Ferentino is thought to have been built by the Volsci people and later conquered by the Ernici, who erected the mighty wall around the highest part of the historic centre. The walls were built between the 7th and 6th centuries BC and have a series of twelve gates through which you reach an elevated scenic area. A dominant feature of the acropolis is the Romanesque cathedral, built in the 10th century and rebuilt seven centuries later. Inside the church there are striking decorations, such as the medieval Cosmatesque floor and other contemporary architectural elements dating from the same period. The apses of the cathedral, the bell tower and a part of the bishop's palace are all built on the foundations of an ancient temple. In Roman times, the city flourished and it was also a favourite holiday destination for the aristocracy, hence the many elegant villas and homes. The town still attracts tourists today, because of the thermal baths located near the centre. Ferentino's period of greatest splendour, however, was the Middle Ages, when the town was the seat of the papal legate. It remained the chief town of southern Lazio until the mid-16th century. The Romanesque church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built in the Cistercian Gothic style in the mid-12th century, is worthy of note. The sober façade features a large, central rose window, while inside it has a nave and two aisles in the Gothic style.

You'll find a more modern side of Trivento on the flat, thin strip running along the sides of the main road, ending at the top above the river Trigno with the hill, on which the historic centre is built in a fan shape around the Cathedral. Tradition has it that the church was founded in the early days of Christianity on the site of an ancient temple dedicated to Diana. More certainly 17th-century is the bell tower, and both a fourth- or fifth-century baptistery and the crypt dedicated to St. Castus are notable inside. The latter is divided by columns and pillars into seven small naves, beneath which are preserved wooden statues, tombstones, frescoes and a 12th century lunette with sculptural reliefs depicting the Trinity. Also worth seeing in this almost small town are the 18th-century chapel and the bishops' hall with portraits of prelates in the Bishop's Palaceand the former 16th-century Church of the Holy Trinity set up as Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art: Here, liturgical vestments and sacred furnishings between the 16th and 19th centuries from the area are displayed, including a 17th-century reliquary with the Holy Thorn. In historical terms, before becoming the Roman municipality of Terventum the place had been a stronghold repeatedly ravaged during the Samnite wars, only to rise to the rank of diocese in early Christian Italy in the fourth century. In terms of nature, however, Trivento is home to the Park of the Cenozoic Morge of Molisewhich unites a number of municipalities in Molise for the purpose of collective promotion.

The Forum is the large central square of the city, which measured approximately 150x36 metres and was divided in two by the decumanus maximus that crossed it transversally. In the square, citizens gathered to meet, discuss and trade or to learn about decisions made by the city's administrators. The north-western part was the sacred part. It was dominated by the Capitolium, the city's main temple, possibly dedicated to the Capitoline Triad or to other deities that cannot be identified at the moment. The Capitolium of Julia Augusta Bagiennorum measured about 10x23 metres and was built on a podium about 4 metres high, accessed by climbing a large frontal staircase. Once at the top, one crossed a portico, the pronaos, and then entered the cella, a large hall in which the large statues of the deities and also the treasures offered to them for good luck were kept. A double-sloping roof covered the temple and was decorated both in the tympanum and along the sides with antefixes with a "palmette" motif. Parts of the marble decorations, some terracotta antefixes, the probable end of the shaft of one of the statues of the gods and the curl of the throne are exhibited in the Museum. In front of the temple, traces of an ara, an altar used for votive sacrifices, were also found. The temple was surrounded on three sides by a single-nave portico overlooked by various rooms; one of these, rectangular in shape and paved, has been interpreted as a curia, a building reserved for the meetings of the senate. AR Experience: click here to activate the immersive experience and step back in time.

An ethnographic museum-workshop housed in an old courtyard house, in which Aunt Savina, the last owner of the house, used to handcraft candles. In the first room of the museum, there is a candle workshop, ancient tools and moulds for votive offerings. The other rooms tell the story of local craft traditions through the setting up of workshops for loom weaving, spinning, embroidery, fabric dyeing and basket weaving. The museum also organises demonstrations and workshops. It is part of the MIF - Museum of Women's Entrepreneurship.

A small town on a low plateau on a bend in the Flumendosa River, Ballao is perhaps the heir to a Roman mansio built to defend the mines in the area. The urban centre does not have any valuable buildings, but it does have numerous dwellings built using a very ancient technique: in the lower part they are made of schist stone, while the rest are made of ladiri, which are sun-baked clay and straw bricks. Along the old road to Silius, one can see the remains of the 13th century Orguglioso or Sassai castle, built by the judges of Cagliari. In the surrounding area, one can visit the disused mining site of Corti Rosas - included in the Geo-mineral Park of Sardinia, where one can look for beautiful antimonite crystals in the heaps of residue - and Funtana Coberta, a sacred Nuragic well of the oldest type.

The mine of Su Suergiu, about 2 kilometres north-west of Villasalto, was active between 1880 and 1987 and was the most important mining and processing site for antimony in Italy. Today it is part of the Geomining Park of Sardinia. The Mineralogical Archaeology Museum, housed in the management building, reconstructs the complete stages of the production process and the lives of the miners through the exhibition, divided into several areas, of the working tools used in the mine, as well as some specimens of minerals and rocks.

On the edge of the Flumendosa alluvial plain, in a fertile area sheltered from the winds and dotted with fishponds, Muravera was populated since antiquity, but over the centuries incursions from the sea and floods caused by the river made it inhospitable. Today, having closed some mines, it lives off agriculture, in particular the cultivation of citrus fruits, celebrated in early spring in a lively festival. In the 1970s, the building boom along the coast made the area touristy, with beautiful beaches and crystal clear sea. In the village are the late-Gothic 16th century parish church of St Nicholas and a small centre with typical low courtyard houses. The Mif-Museo dell'Imprenditoria femminile (Museum of Female Entrepreneurship), a museum system in Muravera, has two venues dedicated to two symbolic women of the country. At 99 Via Marconi, in front of the Church of S. Nicola, the former Carabinieri barracks houses the Women's Museum Francesca Sanna Sulis - centred on the figure of this 18th-century entrepreneur active in the field of silk production, spinning and weaving - and is also the venue for temporary art exhibitions. Not far away, on Via Speranza, an 18th-century courtyard house is now home to the Candelai Museum, which is inspired by Aunt Savina's activity of making votive candles. Particularly eagerly awaited by locals and an attraction for tourists is the Maskaras Summer Carnival, in early August: an opportunity to admire traditional Sardinian costumes and masks from all over the island. At the end of August, on the other hand, the feast of St Augustine takes place, one of the most important in the area: the processions and dances are attended by groups in traditional costume, the traccas, or carts pulled by oxen yokes that have largely disappeared elsewhere, appear, and the masters of the launeddas, the ancient three-reed wind instrument, perform.