Description

On the Majella, imposing and rugged, with its caves, thick beech forests, valleys and precipices, there are, even today, important historical testimonies, including the Table of the Brigands, a set of limestone slabs on which bandits and shepherds have graffitied their names, their stories. It is located in the Blockhaus area, near what in 1863 was a military outpost rebuilt by the Piedmontese on the foundations of an ancient Bourbon building as a deterrent to the passage of bandits. The latter came at night to mock the soldiers by carving their names and leaving anti-unity messages just a stone’s throw from the fort. The best known reads like this: “Read my memoir for dear readers. In 1820 Vittorio Emanuele, King of Italy, was born. First it was the kingdom of flowers, now it is the kingdom of misery.“ The stories of the Majella brigands are living stories of a period characterized by misery and poverty, which unwind like a skein along the entire Apennine side of the Mother Mountain.