Ferrazzano

Ferrazzano
Comune
Comune di Ferrazzano
View of Ferrazzano
Coat of arms
Location of Ferrazzano
Ferrazzano Location of Ferrazzano in Italy Ferrazzano Ferrazzano (Molise)
Coordinates: 41°32′N 14°40′E
Country	Italy
Region	Molise
Province	Campobasso (CB)
Government
• Mayor	Antonio Cerio
Area
• Total	16.77 km2 (6.47 sq mi)
Elevation	870 m (2,850 ft)
Population  (30 November 2017)
• Total	3,317
• Density	200/km2 (510/sq mi)
Demonym	Ferrazzanesi
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	86010
Dialing code	0874
Patron saint	St. Anthony of Padua
Saint day	13 June
Website	Official website

Ferrazzano is a town and comune in the province of Campobasso, in the Italian region Molise. It is located 5 km (3 mi) south of Campobasso.

The town is a medieval village sited on a hilltop in the central part of Italy, in the mountains about halfway across the "knee" of the Italian peninsula. The village is composed of fieldstone row houses with clay tile roofs. Its small piazza is anchored by a simple fountain. The village also has a small castle with a stone turret, and a Catholic church of The Assumption.

During Roman era, the region was populated by the Samnites who contributed, together with others in the area, who fought the Roman invaders in the first Samnite wars. When they realized that the Roman leader Sulla was on the verge of victory (he who had already destroyed the nearby towns of Morcone and Bojano around a century before Christ), they gathered old men, women, children and herds and migrated eastwards (Lucera) abandoning the huts, the poor shelters and the harsh land. The Roman leader Sulla set up a garrison at the top of the hill, around which houses were subsequently built and the first nucleus of the town that today called Ferrazzano was built.

The town is mentioned for the first time in the year 953 with the name of "loco Firaciani"; Nothing remarkable has happened over many centuries; the town passed from one hand to another according to historical events of marriages and hereditary transfers. In the 12th century Ferrazzano was ruled by Riccardo Camarda, from 1269 by the family of Giniaco and later by the house of Sangro; later it became a fief of De Sus.

Transportation

The nearest railway station is that of Campobasso.

People

• American actor Robert De Niro's great-grandparents, Giovanni Di Niro and Angelina Mercurio, immigrated to the United States from Ferrazzano in 1887.