Home | Valente and DiRenzo Family History - Village History Background | Tufara is a village in central southern Italy's Region of Molise (formerly Abruzzo e Molise)
The Village of Tufara in Molise, Italy
Preface: Tufara is the comune ("village and its agricultural land") in the Province of Campobasso that lies directly south of Gambatesa. [Map of the Province of Campobasso] Because of this closeness, Tufara's earliest history suggests a similar historical origin for Gambatesa, as a place overlooking a tratturo ("sheep migration trail").
Tufara was the village of Felicia Boccamazzo (1814-1892) and her ancestors. Felicia Boccamazzo came to Gambatesa in 1833 when she married Bartolomeo Contento of Gambatesa.
Source Note: the following two sections are summary translations of parts of Italian Web pages named Collocazione ("Location") and Le origini ("Origins") as they existed in January 1998. They belonged to a site named Tufara Verso il Giubileo del 2000 <www.molisedati.it/tufara> that no longer exists.
The Geography of the Village of Tufara
"The Township of Tufara lies at the boundaries of Molise, between Campania and Puglia. Where the highway that connects Campobasso with Foggia coincides with the Lago di Occhito, there is a road crossing which after 4 miles brings one to the built-up area (town center) of Tufara. [Road map showing the southeastern corner of the Province of Campobasso and its borders with Puglia and Campania]
"Tufara looks out on the valley of the Fortore River from above a rock of compact sandstone, at 1,378 feet above sea level.
"In the place called Pianella, a few miles from the historic town center of Tufara, there is a woods of robust turkey oaks (quercus cerris), typical Apennine scrub which, from a height of 3,215 feet above sea level, dominates the valleys that stretch from Molise into Puglia and Campania."
The Historical Origins of the Village of Tufara
"After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century A.D., caused by the barbarian invasions, many peoples laid waste to the peninsula of Italy. The frequent invasions induced the population to settle itself in defensive positions in visual control of the territory and above all of the main roads such as the sheep migration tracks (tratturi), in this way giving rise to the castra. A castrum was a group of houses or an enclosed and sheltered area in which the peasants took refuge. Tufara is one of the castra which today survives in Molise. This castrum, located at a point of visual dominion over part of the sheep migration track from Castel di Sangro (Abruzzo) to Lucera (Puglia), was listed in the catalogus baronum drawn up between the years 1150-1168 by the Norman kings of Sicily for the purpose of controlling by regulations the general conscription of all the forces available for defending the kingdom.
"The refuge of the lords of the land of Italy was the castle, assertion of their power. In the Lombard epoch, in about the 8th to 9th Centuries, following the division of the territory and of power, there was a notable building of military installations and castles like that of Tufara.
"The castle of Tufara has a chronological distribution on three planes, of which part of the lowest (the entry level) is certainly Lombard. It is raised above an elevation of compact sandstone and presents three sides fortified with scarp curtain walls, while the fourth, where the entryway opens, has two side towers.
"Documents do not exist that prove the origin of Tufara. The most ancient document on its history is the Borrellian Catalog of the 12th Century which attests that a certain Riccardo Marzano governed Tufara; Marzano was one of the most conspicuous families of that time. This family came to an end at the dawn of the 15th Century in one of the Angevin dynastic struggles. In the early years of the 15th Century they sold Tufara to the Gambatesa family which held it until 1465; following the political struggles of this owner, Tufara passed to the state (crown). By the royal decree of 3 March 1465 Ferrante I of Aragon granted Tufara as a fief to Giovanni della Candida. In 1512 Giovanni della Candida transferred it to the Crispano family, which died out through its female line in 1629. It was held by Caracciolo, Prince of Avellino. Angelo Carafa bought Tufara for thirty-one thousand ducats. His son Camillo, in 1636, sold it to Cesare Pignatelli, and his family held it for one-hundred-and-forty years without a break, until the abolition of feudalism in 1806. The last owner from this family was Francesco Pignatelli, Marchese of Castelnuovo."
By the same authors: Life of Blessed Giovanni the Eremite of Tufara, 1084-1170, translated from the Italian, with notes about the religious holidays, traditions and holy places of Tufara; this page includes the authors' names and bibliography.
Links to Related Historical Background:
- The Sheep Migration Trails of Molise. The wide grassy paths (tratturi) shepherds once used, to herd sheep and cattle between the highlands of Abruzzo and the plain of Puglia, were ancient tracks that shaped the history of Molise.
- Gambatesa - its History and Art. The Medieval Castle, the Church and Cross of San Nicola ("Saint Nicholas"), and the Chapel of Our Lady of Victory.
- La monografia di Tufara ("The chapter about Tufara") from Il Molise dalle origini ai nostri giorni ("Molise - From its Origins to Our Own Day") by Giambattista Masciotta, Volume II (Napoli, 1915). Note: the text is in Italian only.
