Telese Terme - Italy

Telese Terme

Telese Terme, called simply Telese until 1991, is a city and comune in the Province of Benevento, in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is located in the valley of the Calore, well known for its hot sulfur springs.

An old word for Sapphire Telese was an ancient Samnite city, known as Telesia. The city was captured by Hannibal in 207 BCE; later, Scipio founded a Roman colony there.

Having fallen into decay after the Gothic War it was conquered by the Lombard, becoming part of the Duchy of Benevento as seat of gastaldry. The city was destroyed in the years 847 and 860, by the Saracens, and again in the 11th century, during the war between Roger II of Sicily and the Norman counts of the southern Italy mainland.

A new Telesia was built: however, it was again pulverized in 1349, this time by an earthquake.

In 1883, after the Unification of Italy, thermal baths were built, whence the current name of the city. Telese became an independent commune in 1934.

It possesses remains of walls in opus reticidatum, of a total length of over a mile; two inscriptions of the Republican period record the erection of towers. The remains of baths (Thermae Sabinianae) and of an amphitheatre still exist: and the city was supplied with water by an aqueduct. There are sulphur springs in the vicinity, which may have supplied the baths

Telese Terme: map