San Martino in Pensilis

The most internal part in Molise [including the province of Isernia] it was included [together with the northern part of Campania] to the Samnium, ancient historical-geographical region, not perfectly delimited, of southern Italy. Its name obviously derives from the samnites that they lived it. Instead the Low Molise was inhabited from Frentani, population of Osque language as good part of the Center-Southern populations.

Historically Molise is tied up to the events of Abruzzo. The longobards created the gastaldato of Bojano, and the Norman will turn the same into Comitatus Molisii. In 1221, Frederich II turned Molise into a district of imperial justice.

The county of Molise in the Late Middle Ages sustain the immigration of gypsies and schiavoni, and in the XV century that of the Albanian, that founded different centers and they also installed them in the adjacent zone around Foggia. Under the Spanish domination it was united to the Capitanata (correspondent to province of Foggia), of which shared the ample autonomy. In the 1811 Gioacchino Murat established that Molise became autonomic province (about of the current frontiers) and this administrative division was taken back after the unity of Italy. In the years between 1861 and 1865 it constituted one of the epicenter of the brigandage phenomenon, expression of the discomfort of the mountain populations and farmers of the South, and tool in the hands of the bourbons to oppose resistance to the unitary state.

The rivers, few and short, are: the Trigno (84 kms.), Fortore (86 kms.) and Volturno (175 kms.), of which is Molisan only the superior line entering too soon in Campania, rendering therefore to the Tyrrhenian sea; we remember Biferno, that is the principal. The river goes down from the mountains of Matese and is tributary and emissary of the Guardialfiera lake and form the amplest valley of the region. An obstruction on the Fortore has originated the artificial basin of Occhito (12 km²s), partly however in territory of Puglia. All the river have torrential caracter with summer flood and winter minimum flow. The climate has continental characters in the inland, while it is mild in proximity of the coast.