Bonito, a small village in the province of Avellino, is a place where history, culture and creativity intertwine.

• 13 Aug 2024
• REPERTUR
• Borghi Antichi

Bonito, a small village in the province of Avellino, is a place where history, culture and creativity intertwine.
A hilltop village that arose in the Middle Ages on the slopes of Mount Calvario, Bonito is an urban space consecrated and revitalized by Street Art.

A land rich in valuable crops since ancient times and with a suggestive hilly landscape, Bonito in Roman times became part of the possessions of Aeclanum and was then colonized and enriched by the Romans. The current settlement, however, dates back to the 10th century when the Lombards built the Castrum in a border area between the Counties of Ariano and the Duchy of Benevento.

Once under Norman possessions, Bonito linked its name and its fate first to Ariano and then to Grottaminarda.

Towering over a village made up of small noble palaces and small churches connected to each other by a fabulous maze of cobbled streets, the Norman Castle of Bonito stands out over the entire valley. Built around the year 1000 with a quadrangular plan surrounded by four corner towers, after the various earthquakes that have remodeled its structure, today it presents itself with only the Norman Maluocchi Tower, recently entered into the municipal heritage, which presents along its circular walls and vault ancient paintings that with good reason could date back to the seventeenth century.

Another place of great historical and cultural interest is represented by the Chapel of Vincenzo Camuso once also known as the Congrega della Buona Morte. Obtained in the crypt of the ancient Church of the Annunziata, it houses the mummy of a mysterious Zi' Vicienzo, a character venerated for about two hundred years by the people of Bonito. The walls of the small building are covered with many ex-votos that ask the "saint" to perform miracles. The phantom figure of Zi’ Vicienzo, halfway between the sacred and the profane, has never revealed the truth about the character who was, according to some, a surgeon who performed miraculous operations at night, according to others a monk, according to others still a ruthless hitman, capable of appearing in dreams to anyone who questioned his authority.

Despite aspects of historical and architectural interest, it is thanks to the BOCA Collective (Bonito Contest Art) that Bonito has managed to emerge in the provincial and regional panorama as a city of street art thanks to the contributions of many artists who have favored interventions of urban creativity and with them have promoted and enhanced the rural context of the village by redeveloping it with contemporary public art. In a sort of festival without start or end dates, international artists of the caliber of Millo, Tellas, Alex Senna, Diego Miedo, Arp, Milu Correch, Camilla Falsini, Guerrilla Spam, Irene Lasivita, Carlos Atoche have revitalized the characteristic ravines of the village, illuminated the streets, colored the walls of the houses, with works of art of the highest order in the contemporary panorama of street art. Some of the murals created in 2016 as part of the “Impronte” project have attempted to pay homage to the creativity of Salvatore Ferragamo, an extraordinary designer of global fame who has never denied his Bonito origins. Finally, in Bonito, there is “La Genesi” by Francisco Bosoletti, a work created by the Argentine artist on three walls with the theme of fire which, in 2018, was judged to be among the three most beautiful murals in the world.