According to the myth, in its proximity, in one of the grottoes of Taburno, Hercules succeeded one of his twelve labours killing the lion of which he would have worn the hide.
Montesarchio, on the slopes of Taburno Mountain, and in the heart of the Caudine Valley, is the Samnium most populated city after Benevento, of which Caudium was the capital at the time of the Caudine samnite tribes. Already an important city, and crossroads of trade with coastal communities of Magna Graecia.
Its position proved to be decisive also in roman times, especially with the construction of the Appian Way, which was linking Rome and Benevento and passed nearby. It was also a Lombard gastald, fortified with a powerful castle since the 8th century. The castle was built on the top of the hill, and on the sides, there is the old town. A hill called Torre (Tour), because near the Castle there is a tower with a circular plan with, originally, a military function, which, King Ferdinand II of Bourbon changed into a prison, where political prisoners were incarcerated.
Protected by the castle and the tower, the so-called Lato Vetere of the town was founded by the Lombards, and to which, with the advent of the Normans, the Lato novo was added. The abbey of San Nicola dates back to medieval times, as well as the Romanesque façade and the inside, with two naves, with other elements of the original church, which has changed over time. The church and the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, established by the Franciscans in the 15th century, keeps a woodcarving of the Virgin of Carmine Lantriceni and it has a cloister and a campanile. Both the church and the convent have been built in 1339 and then revisited in Baroque style, with three-nave interior and valuable eighteenth-century paintings. The baroque seventeenth-century church of San Giovanni Battista (also known as Chiesa dell’Annunziata) must be visited, as well as the coeval church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli including the convent,
The National Archaeological Museum of Caudine Samnium is located in the castle, with finds of funerary objects dating from 10th-9th century and Roman times. Necropolis of Caudium have been rediscovered, Saticula (Sant’Agata de’ Goti “) and Telesia (San Salvatore Telesino). These are mostly Corinthians ceramics and Late Roman objects, “buccheri” (class of ceramics produced in central Italy) from Etruria and from Capua, Greek vases with red and black figures, vases from Magna Graecia with red figures produced in Apulia and Campania, as evidence of the exchanges that the Caudini had with other populations. In the museum, a real jewel of the archaeology is kept: The Abduction of Europa, symbol of the European Union, the famous 5th century vase of the ceramics decorator: Assteas. The vase has been stolen in Saticula in 1970 by grave robbers and, after several subsequent moves, it landed in the Getty Museum and returned to Italy in 2007.
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