HISTORICAL NOTE

THE WITCHES OF BENEVENTO is set in 1820s Benevento.

Benevento was an important crossroads in Roman times and was the capital of the Lombards in Southern Italy during the early Middle Ages.

Even before the Romans conquered it, the town was famous as a center of witches. (Its original name, Maleventum—“bad event”—was switched by the Romans to Beneventum—“good event”—in hope of changing things. It didn’t work.) For hundreds of years, Benevento was believed to be the place where all the witches of the world gathered, attending their peculiar festivals at a walnut tree near the Sabato River.

The people of Benevento, however, never believed there was anything wrong with witches, and maybe that’s why they had—or thought they had—so many of them.