The legend of the witches of Benevento

Benevento is known for being the “city of witches”, better known as “janare” of Benevento, women who according to legend danced under the walnut trees on the banks of the Sabato river. But how is a janara born?

The mothers of the Benevento witches are the goddess Isis, highly venerated in the Benevento area, and the goddess Diana, from which the term “janare” comes, which would mean “priestess of Diana”.

With the arrival of the Lombards, also pagans, the faithful to the cults of Isis and Diana joined this Germanic people who venerated the Nordic gods and who performed propitiatory rites around the trees, on which sheepskins were hung and then torn with spears.

It was at this time that the Christians began to circulate the first rumors about women who danced around walnut trees, who held Sabbaths and only went out at night… the janare of Benevento.

Behind legends, as we know, there is always a grain of reality.

In the Benevento calendar there are many “magic dates” such as June 23, San Giovanni, a night in which love and fertility rites were performed, and December 24, Christmas night, in which magic formulas and traditions related to herbs were exchanged.

The witches of Benevento were nothing other than women aware of the power, and magic, that was hidden in plants, flowers, herbal concoctions… and in nature in general. One of their most famous nursery rhymes is: “nguento nguento, manname a lu nocio ‘e Beneviente, sotto l’acqua e sotto ‘o vient’, sotto a ogne maletiempo”.

The janare of Benevento used to celebrate their Sabbaths under the walnut tree consecrated to the god Odin along the banks of the Sabato river, although it is not known exactly where it was located.

Walking towards Ponte Leproso, in the Triggio district there is a witch called Zucculara, well known by the people of Benevento for the sound of hooves that could be heard at night when she passed through the streets of the neighborhood.

Instead, at the Ponte delle Janare in San Lupo you might happen to meet the witch Manolonga, who is said to be the ghost of a young girl who drowned because of accusations of witchcraft, who bewitches the unfortunate and then throws them into the river.

Of considerable interest is the Janua museum, dedicated to the witches of Benevento, to popular medicine, to the herbs of the janare and to traditions.