“In Roccamandolfi one is born a brigand as elsewhere one is born a musician,” wrote Vincenzo Berlingieri. A proud, independent people, refractory to authority, who over the centuries have been able to resist abuse and imposition.
The history of brigandage in Roccamandolfi, as in other towns in Molise, is one of bloodshed and rebellion. After the unification of Italy, in fact, the South was the scene of an explosive phenomenon: about eighty thousand men organized themselves into four hundred armed bands, and it took the Savoy Kingdom almost a decade to crush the resistance, using half of its own armed forces.
Brigandage was not simple criminality, but a desperate reaction to the social and economic upheavals that followed the fall of the Kingdom of Naples: former Bourbon soldiers, dispossessed peasants, betrayed promises and growing poverty fueled the protest, as Rita Frattolillo and Barbara Bertolini explain in their book.
To rediscover these often forgotten pages, the Multimedia Museum of Brigandage was created in Roccamandolfi, housed in a modern facility at the entrance to the town. In addition to a rich library and several study rooms, the museum boasts an impressive multimedia room where a 3-D video tells the true stories of local brigands.
Prominent among them is the figure of Sabatino Maligno, a 30-year-old shepherd who went from being a peaceful man to one of the most feared brigands. Described by Berlingieri as endowed with “Herculean forms” and “protected by the devil,” Maligno became a symbol of fierce revenge against the injustices he suffered. Until 1843, two cages with the skulls of Maligno and Cazzonero could be seen on the village bell tower, macabre reminders of an era marked by deep conflict.
To visit the Roccamandolfi museum is to immerse oneself in an authentic story of courage, rebellion and pride that has too long remained at the margins of collective memory.