GAMBATESA
Historically it is
certain that, in times before, within
present township limits, of the inhabited built-up areas, there used to
exist some areas dating back to the time of the Romans. Of this there
is evidence in recovered coins, tombs and remains of walls from the
Roman Age, as well as ruins and information from church sources
regarding the villages of Chiusano, Salandra and Vipera.
The origin itself of the
built-up area of Gambatesa lies in the time
before the Lombard invasion. None-the-less, historical research has so
far taken as its beginning the time in which the village assumed the
name Gambatesa. The fundamental part of the history of Gambatesa begins
in the 13th century with Richard of Gambatesa (Riccardo da Gambatesa or
di Gambatesa), right-hand man of the Angevin Court of Naples and of the
Papal Court at Rome. Gifted with great diplomatic and military ability,
Richard gained fame as a wise ruler and as a brave military leader,
above all in the government and defense of Genoa against the assaults
of the exiled Ghibellines headed by Cane della Scala, Marco Visconti of
Milan, and by Castruccio Castrocani degli Antelminelli, Lord of Lucca.
For these and for his other merits Richard of Gambatesa obtained from
Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, not a few titles and fiefs.
Richard of Gambatesa, not having
male heirs, but only two female (Sybil
and Margaret), procured that his first grandson Riccardello, son of the
said Sybil and of Giovanni Monforte, add to his paternal surname also
that of Gambatesa, thus giving beginning to the new feudal lineage of
Monforte-Gambatesa.
From the end of the 14th century
through the whole of the 15th, history
records no facts of particular importance. With the conquest of the
Kingdom of Naples by the Court of Aragon, the fief of Gambatesa passed
in 1484 to Andrea Di Capua, Duke of Termoli. With the Di Capua, who
adopted a liberal political line, began for Gambatesa a long period of
relative peace, productiveness and well-being, during which there was a
notable expansion of sheep farming both village-based (stabled) and
migratory, which was accompanied by a large increase in population and
in building. The good socio-economic situation favored the emergence of
a few middle-class families. Among these the most fame was achieved,
from the end of the 1500s to the beginning of the 1600s, by the
Eustachio family, for its considerable activity carried out in the
field of medicine and in that of the ecclesiastical-pastoral. Ferrante
Di Capua, Junior, Duke of Termoli, prior to 1583, sold Gambatesa to
Francesco Lombardo, a landowner from Troia.
This period of growth was
interrupted by the terrible plague of
1656-57, which reduced the local population from the 291 families
(about 1455 inhabitants) of the year 1648 to the barely 70 families
(about 350 inhabitants) counted in the census of 1669.
During the 18th century the
municipality of Gambatesa had to suffer not
a few vexations and usurpations on the part of the new feudal family of
the Ceva-Grimaldi, on account of which many citizens were forced to
emigrate elsewhere. In 1799 Gambatesa supported the Parthenopean
Republic and on account of this lived tumultuous events. It was
attacked and sacked by the inhabitants of Celenza, San Marco la Catola,
and Casalvecchio, supporters of the Bourbon cause, who released their
fury above all against the property of the Rotondo family, politically
and militarily employed in the defense of republican ideals. Immediate
and bloody was the response of the Rotondo: Celenza in particular paid
heavily for its act of aggression. With the restoration of the Bourbon
monarchy, Prosdocimo Rotondo, who in the republican government held the
added office of President of the Committee of Finance, was hanged, at
Naples, in the Piazza Mercato on 30 September 1799, while his brothers
suffered the confiscation of their properties and exile.
In 1806, with the end of
feudalism, the onerous feudal burdens were
lifted from the citizens, but, even if they were able to come into
possession of their piece of land, they were loaded with other burdens
no less heavy. Moreover brigands, famines, cholera, earthquakes and
other natural disasters contributed, for the whole of the 19th century
and part of the 20th, to making life hard and insecure above all for
the least well-to-do. During the uprisings of 1848, the brothers
Giacomo and Domenico Venditti carried out intense political activity
for the realization of liberal ideals. In 1891 on account of the
imposition of a new tax (la focatica, the hearth or household tax), the
exasperated populace gave life to a violent and menacing revolt against
the local authorities.
Since the Second World War
Gambatesa has gradually developed and has
seen a notable increase in building. Today it is an inviting town of
2,000 inhabitants, predominantly agricultural, but with projected
potentials for the crafts and for industry. Traduttore: http://www.systransoft.com/
Gambatesa
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