Poggio Sannita

Poggio Sannita Is intimate and blooming, like a precious secret garden. The rock here is alive, outcropping. Listen to the wind threading through alleys, watch the doorways of houses, caress wild flowers. The village is open to the landscape. Unexpected views and various vantage points enhance the village’s more than 700 m altitude. Almost monumental the parish church of Santa Vittoria, anchored on the living rock and elevated thanks to a striking stone-vaulted underpass, the ancient Porta Castello, which invites you to penetrate into the heart of the historic center. Inside is the beautiful 18th-century organ made and donated by the D’Onofrio family, historic organ builders from Poggio Sannita, who have been active in Molise and Abruzzo since the 15th century. Valuable is the reliquary of St. Prospero, patron saint of Poggio. From the upper floors of the Ducal Palace, built in the late 15th century, there is a magnificent view of the Verrino Valley. The small squares, terraces and alleys are decorated with flowering plants and, thanks to the happy intuition of two ladies of the village, with colorful cloth puppets called Babaci, who interpret ancient crafts and scenes of daily life.
Going up to the village, the view sweeps over beautiful olive groves that, for centuries, have fed a small but interesting local production. Witnessing the past is the ancient Iacovone oil mill, a musealized historic oil mill in the oldest part of the town, whose visit is not to be missed (reservation only). For its olive-growing tradition, Poggio Sannita is a member of the National Association of Oil Cities.

Fun fact: Poggio Sannita’s original name was Caccavone. The caccavo was a metal pot, rather deep and with a flared mouth, traditionally used for coagulating milk into cheese or whey into cottage cheese. Believing it to be a name of humble origin and subject to easy irony, the Town Council approved the town’s new name by a resolution in 1921, which was later implemented by a Royal Decree.