Sant'Agapito, Province Isernia, Molise, Italy

Rising on a hill in the vicinity of Isernia, the town enjoys a fine view of the whole vally where the province capital lies, against the immpressive background of the Mainarde mountains. The original settlement rose around the church of "Sanctum Agapitum", where today tehre is the district called Sant’Agapito Scalo, in the 9th century, when the Benevento Duke Grimoaldus III founded the benedictine monastery of Sant’Agapito in Valle. The place was under the Lombards part of the Isernia countdom, to pass in Norman times under the Molise Counts, who probably built the castle as their own mansion and to defend the borough. The first feudal lords took the name of the place and were called Sant'Agapiti. Other lords followed: the Gaetani in the 15th century, the Provenzale in the 17th, and finally the Caracciolo.