Lake Matese during winter.

San Gregorio Matese from Pianura Alifana.

Padule, with the remians of the ancient Benedictine Monastery.

Remains of Cistercense Monastery.

Mount Miletto was covered with snow when the Roman militias crossed the Matese during the second Samnite War. Something terrible happened in that period because the countryside from San Croce to the village became full of military graves.

Since the millennia, man had already taken advantage of the natural resources that the mountain offers, but it was some centuries after this that it is certain that people lived in S. Gregorio Matese. The proof comes from a Christian tombstone that records the death of three little brothers dated in the summer of 553 A.D.

For centuries and centuries there is no trace of the hard life of the peasant and the shepherd, nevertheless the population increased, growing around the Benedictine Monastery close to Padule, in the area where the scholastic building is today. The point of reference was the church dedicated to San Gregorio I the Pope, which rose on the present belvedere where the market is held. Its crypts were for centuries the cemetery of the village, and today the containment wall is still visible.

Centuries later the Cistercensi arrived, whose installation was a little distance from the village. This monastic installation was for a long time the center for the social life in the area. Then everything disappeared and only the monastery Wall remained. It still exists, appearing on the overhang of the Hell Deep Valley (Vallone dell' Inferno).

Towards the end of the 1500s there already existed some of the families of the present day people of San Gregorio: the De Lellis, Bojano, Fattore, Loffreda and Ferritto. Most were shepherds, farmers, donkey drivers and mushroom gatherers, but there also were the doctor and the midwife, the tailor and the shoemaker. The sons of the rich studied at the Alifano Seminary.

The land of the Matese was of the feudal overlord, the Count Gaetani. The peasants had to ask permission in order to work to gain the little amount of food they needed to exist, even in the severe winters.