Roccavivara

Roccavivara sits at 652 meters above the Trigno river in northern Molise, 30 kilometers north of Campobasso. Its name has two competing etymologies — either from Rocca Bonnarii, after a founder named Bonnario, or from the nearby Vivara contrada that still borders the commune. The lower valley holds Roman-era remains from both republican and imperial periods, including a villa with a megalithic substructure at the San Fabiano locality.

From 1268 the village was a feudo of Gualtiero di Vollers, later passing through the Cantelmo, Sangro, Carafa and Coppola families until the abolition of feudalism. Today Roccavivara's anchor is the Santuario della Madonna del Canneto, a Romanesque sanctuary on the Trigno first documented in 706 AD when Duke Gisulfo I of Benevento donated it to the Benedictines of San Vincenzo al Volturno; by 1097 the church had passed to Montecassino. The current 11th-12th century building holds a rare 1223 ambone with six high-relief Benedictine monks and a 14th-century gothic statue known as the Madonna del Sorriso. The town belongs to the Città dell'Olio network on the strength of its olive groves along the warm Trigno slopes.