One of the oldest sites in Europe and the fountain symbol of the city
Isernia, an ancient town on a ridge between two rivers in western Molise, holds one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe. In 1978, during the construction of a road, at the locality of La Pineta, on the outskirts of the city, a huge Palaeolithic settlement was discovered, dating back about 600,000 years, one of the oldest in Europe: an area where early humans, of the species Homo heidelbergensis, butchered the carcasses of animals such as bison, rhinoceros, elephants and bears, leaving thousands of bones and stone tools on the ground. In 2014, the excavations also yielded a milk tooth of a child, the oldest human remain found in Italy. The Museo Nazionale del Paleolitico of Isernia, built on the site, allows visitors to see the excavation area, with the paleosurface covered with bones and tools, as it was found, and tells the life of these ancient hunters.
The historic centre of Isernia, rebuilt several times after earthquakes and the bombings of the Second World War, preserves the Cathedral, the medieval Fontana Fraterna, the symbol of the city, built in the thirteenth or fourteenth century with stones taken from Roman monuments, with an elegant series of arches and stone slabs on which are carved Roman inscriptions and decorations, and the church of Santa Maria delle Monache. Isernia is also known for its bobbin lace, the "tombolo", made by women with great skill and displayed in a museum, and for the "Fiera di San Pietro delle Cipolle", an onion fair held at the end of June.
Tip: visit the Paleolithic museum to see the excavation area; then walk to the Fontana Fraterna in the historic centre.
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