Bellona is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

(municipality) in the Province of Caserta

Province of Caserta

The Province of Caserta is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta. The former royal palace of Caserta is located near to the city.It has an area of 2,639 km², and a total population of 879,342...

 in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 region Campania

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

, located about 35 km north of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 and about 14 km northwest of Caserta

Caserta

Caserta is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial comune and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Campanian Subapennine mountain range...

.

The municipality of Bellona contains the frazione

Frazione

A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

(subdivision) Triflisco.

Bellona borders the following municipalities: Camigliano

Camigliano

Camigliano is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 40 km north of Naples and about 15 km northwest of Caserta...

, Capua

Capua

Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...

, Pontelatone

Pontelatone

Pontelatone is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 40 km north of Naples and about 15 km northwest of Caserta. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,847 and an area of 30.4 km²...

, Vitulazio

Vitulazio

Vitulazio is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 35 km north of Naples and about 15 km northwest of Caserta...

.

History

The town takes its name from the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 goddess Bellona

Bellona

-Places:United States of America*Bellona Foundry and adjacent Bellona Arsenal, 19th century United States Army and Confederate munitions factory and depot in VirginiaItaly*Bellona, Campania, a comune in the Province of CasertaSolomon Islands...

, who had a temple devoted to her in the area. Recent excavations also have showed the likely presence of another temple of Mercury

Mercury (mythology)

Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...

.

When the Saracens destroyed the ancient Capua

Santa Maria Capua Vetere

-External links:*...

 in 841, some of their inhabitants moved to the Palmobara hill (the modern Bellon's frazione of Triflisco) founding the town of Sicopoli. This was also destroyed by the Saracens in 856. Bellona continued to be a frazione of Capua until the Nepoleonic Age

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 (1806).

On October 7, 1943 German soldiers shot 54 of Bellona's citizens. Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro , Italian politician and magistrate, was the ninth President of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1999, and is currently a senator for life...

 awarded the town the Golden Medal of Military Valour to reward the town's contribute in the Resistance in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.