Camposauro in the Taburno Park

The Camposauro massif rises west of Benevento as a limestone ridge separating the Caudina valley from the Sabato valley. It belongs to the Parco Regionale del Taburno-Camposauro (Taburno-Camposauro Regional Park), established by the Regione Campania, and forms with the neighbouring Taburno a mountain system that ranks among the most compact reliefs of the Sannio Apennines. The town of Cautano, in the province of Benevento, is one of the main points of reference for those climbing toward the summit, where the rugged slopes suddenly give way to a grassy plain of unexpected breadth.

It is precisely this plain that defines Camposauro. Up there, beyond the beech and turkey oak woods that cover the massif's flanks, the ground opens into a plateau under open sky, roamed by semi-wild horses grazing freely among the grass. Their presence is not decorative: it is the mark of an ancient bond between this land and extensive grazing, a practice that geographic isolation has kept almost intact. The horses move without visible fences, indifferent to passers-by, and the scene has the quiet quality of something that has always happened, regardless of who is watching.

The landscape shifts sharply with the seasons. In summer the plain is green and bright, the woods below dense and shaded. In autumn the beech trees turn red and ochre, and the massif's slopes take on hues that change week by week. Winter brings snow, which can temporarily cut off the higher elevations and gives Camposauro a quiet severity. Spring, with the thaw and the blooming, reopens the trails to those who walk the park's network of hiking routes.

The massif's limestone base has favoured the formation of karst phenomena over time — sinkholes, swallow holes, cavities — that dot the park's territory and record its geological history. The flora varies with altitude and exposure: at lower elevations the typical species of Apennine scrubland prevail, while higher up one finds the beech formations characteristic of the mountain belt. This vertical gradient concentrates markedly different environments within just a few kilometres of elevation change.

The inland area of Benevento remains distant from the more frequented circuits of coastal and Vesuvian Campania, and Camposauro shares this condition of relative marginality. The villages scattered across the park's slopes — Cautano, Tocco Caudio, Vitulano — retain a historical structure that is still legible, with churches, noble palazzi and urban fabric that has not undergone radical transformation. Seen from these lower elevations, the massif is a constant presence on the daily horizon of those who live in the valley: not a decorative backdrop, but a concrete measure of the land.