Montella is an Italian town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (municipality) in the province of Avellino,

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

, with a population of 7,699. The zone was inhabited already in the

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

period. The town was founded by the Samnites in the 1st millennium BC, to become a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

and a town under the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...

Culture

Montella is a production center of

chestnuts The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelated ...

, and the comune organizes the Sagra Castagna di Montella (Montella Chestnut Festival) each fall. An eco-museum dedicated to the chestnut, the Museo della Castagna Montella, opened in 2014. Part of the comune of Montella is also encompassed by Monti Picentini Regional Park, a mountainous natural preserve in Campania which is host to many types of mushrooms as well as cave systems. The

Convent of Saint Francis at Folloni The Convent of Saint Francis at Folloni ( Italian ''Convento di San Francesco a Folloni'') is a Franciscan friary located near Montella in the province of Avellino in southern Italy. The monastery was founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in AD 1221� ...

is nearby. According to tradition, it was founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in AD 1221-1222 when he was turned away from the town due to fears of

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...

. The saint and his fellow travelers slept under a tree and were miraculously protected from the snow. After this event, they founded the friary and it remains there today.

Twin towns

Norristown Norristown may mean: * Norristown, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Norristown, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Norristown, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Norristown, Pennsylvania Norristown is a municipality with home ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, USA

People

Giovanni Palatucci Giovanni Palatucci (31 May 1909 – 10 February 1945) was an Italian police official who was long believed to have saved thousands of Jews in Fiume between 1939 and 1944 (current Rijeka in Croatia) from being deported to Nazi extermination camps. ...

, a

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...

Salvatore Pelosi Salvatore Pelosi (10 April 1906 – 24 October 1974) was an Italian naval officer who fought in World War II. As commander of the submarine '' Torricelli'' he made a gallant last stand against overwhelming British naval forces in June 194 ...

, Italian naval officer *

Aurelio Fierro Aurelio Fierro (13 September 1923 – 11 March 2005) was a successful Italian actor and singer who specialized in songs in the Neapolitan dialect. Career He was born in Montella, in the Province of Avellino, Italy. His singing career bega ...

, Italian singer *

Geno Auriemma Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954) is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and, since 1985, the head coach of the University of Connecticut Connecticut Huskies women's basketball, Huskies women's basketball team. , he has le ...

, American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

coach *

Leonarda Cianciulli Leonarda Cianciulli (18 April 1894 – 15 October 1970) was an Italian serial killer. Better known as the Soap-Maker of Correggio (Italian: ''la Saponificatrice di Correggio''), she murdered three women in the town of Correggio, Reggio Emilia, in ...

, serial killer The grandparents of American actress

Maria Bello Maria Elena Bello (born April 18, 1967) is an American actress and writer. Her film roles include '' Permanent Midnight'' (1998), '' Payback'' (1999), '' Coyote Ugly'' (2000), ''The Cooler'' (2003), '' A History of Violence'' (2005), '' The Mumm ...

came from Montella.

References

External links

Official website
Cities and towns in Campania {{Campania-geo-stub

Culture

Twin towns

People

See also

References

External links