Identity: capital of Molise, San Giorgio, the Misteri
Campobasso is the capital of the Molise region and province, seat of the Regional Council and executive and of the Prefecture; the municipality has no elected municipi. The patron saint is San Giorgio, feast on 23 April. The Corpus Domini Procession of the Misteri, with its thirteen eighteenth-century "ingegni", is the tradition that defines the city. The dialect is of the upper-southern type.
Sections: Geography · History · Population · Languages · Time zone · Public holidays
Municipality, province, region
Campobasso is governed by an elected mayor and city council; the municipal territory, of modest size, includes a few hamlets (Santo Stefano, Mascione and other contrade) and is not divided into municipi or districts with elected bodies. It is the capital of the Province of Campobasso and of the Molise Region, created in 1963 by separation from Abruzzi: the city hosts the Regional Council (Palazzo D'Aimmo), the regional executive (Palazzo Vitale), the Prefecture, the Court, the Court of Appeal, the regional health authority and the Molise Chamber of Commerce. Isernia, the other provincial capital, hosts some regional offices and part of the university.
San Giorgio and the Misteri
The patron saint is San Giorgio: the city holiday is 23 April, with solemn mass in the Romanesque church of San Giorgio on the hill and the closure of municipal offices. The best-known tradition, however, is the Procession of the Misteri, on Corpus Domini Sunday: thirteen wood-and-iron "ingegni" devised in the eighteenth century by Paolo Saverio Di Zinno, on which costumed children and adults are suspended in the air to represent sacred scenes, carried on shoulders through the centre to the sound of the band. The Museo dei Misteri keeps the machines all year. Other dates: Holy Week celebrations and Christmas with markets in the old town.
Dialect and character
Campobassano is a Molise dialect of the upper-southern type, related to the Campanian and Adriatic Abruzzo dialects, with its own features; regional Italian is used everywhere. Molise hosts recognised historic linguistic minorities — the Molise Croats of Acquaviva Collecroce, Montemitro and San Felice del Molise and the Arbëreshë of Ururi, Portocannone, Campomarino and Montecilfone — in the province, not in the city. The city's character is that of a small administrative capital, with a strong presence of public employees, students and a long history of emigration to the North and abroad.
Data
Sources
Updated: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Reviewed: 10/23/2026 · by piero.avolio · rev. 1 · Period: → 2027-10-31
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