GOLFO DI SALERNO

Ah, the Fusandola's Stairs, a magnificent ascent that leads you from the lower part of Salerno to the entrance of the Decumanus Maximus through Via Tasso. Prepare yourself for a truly breathtaking experience as we climb these historic stairs. The Fusandola's Stairs, also known as the Scale della Fusandola in Italian, are a testament to the city's ancient past and architectural prowess. These steps, carved into the hillside, offer a dramatic and picturesque entrance to Salerno. As we ascend the Fusandola's Stairs, you'll marvel at the intricate craftsmanship and attention to detail that went into their construction. The stone steps, worn smooth by the passage of time, bear witness to countless footsteps throughout the centuries. The stairs wind their way up the hill, offering panoramic views of the city as we climb higher. Take a moment to pause and admire the breathtaking vistas of Salerno's rooftops, the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Salerno, and the lush sur...

Salerno is a city located in southwestern Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It has a long and interesting history, dating back to ancient times. In the 8th century BC, Salerno was founded by the Etruscans and became an important trading center. It was later conquered by the Romans, who developed the city into a major port and made it an important center of commerce and culture. During the Middle Ages, Salerno was an important center of learning, with a medical school that was one of the most renowned in Europe. The city was also a hub of artistic and cultural activity, and it played a key role in the Norman Conquest of southern Italy. In more recent times, Salerno has continued to be an important regional center and a popular tourist destination. It is known for its historic center, which features a number of landmarks and buildings from its rich history, as well as its beautiful location on the Mediterranean Sea.

 The Roman amphitheaters locally assume the term of "Parlascio", "Berlascio", "Verlascio", "Verlasce", "Perilascio". The only credible hypothesis is that of the Devoto who definitively clarifies that the term has a precise reference to its physical form deriving from a late Roman word borrowed from two terms of Greek origin. It would be the term of "perilasium" born from the fusion of the Greek terms perì (around) and elao (to turn). In other words, Belorasi would mean nothing more than "going around". The term "Mons Belorasi" defines a place in medieval Salerno where a roman amphitheater existed in late antiquity. The term could not identify a mountain, but the site where the amphitheater "Berolasi" rises, This, according to the testimony of the medieval historian Erchemperto, should be equivalent to the amphitheater identified by scholars in the triangle composed of the current via Arce, via Ver...

 A crucial element for the city's economy is the harbour's continually changing position and size. As for the rather controversial question of the Roman port of the city, it is likely that the colony used small stopovers, located at the mouth of the Fusandola or that of the Irno, then located about half a kilometer further inland, in a small inlet between the western side of the Bellara hill (better known as Masso della Signora) and the eastern line of the modern city.  At the Fusandola stream, scattered necropolises from the Archaic and Samnite periods are witnessed, relating to sedentary nuclei placed to control the passage of an important coastal artery. The river Irno in pre-Roman times was certainly endowed with a much wider flow than the current one and therefore it was certainly navigable; it is therefore assumed the existence of some port docks at the service of the Etruscan center, which can be located along the watercourse at the height of today's Chalcedon distri...

The "Collegio degli Augustali" (Shrines of the Augustales) constituted a sort of religious brotherhood in charge of the cult of Augustus, which spread in the eastern provinces after the death of the emperor (14 AD). The Augustales were in charge of the observance of the ritual and of the celebrations of the birth of Augustus and of his exploits, of the organization of the games and of all public events related to the celebration of the emperor. At the head of this religious order there was the "magister", a guide who had functions of coordination and control. The recruitment of adepts generally took place among "liberti" (freedmen) of more affluent conditions, dedicated to trade and craft activities, on the basis of the loyalty shown to the emperor. The main function of this college, in fact, was to create consensus and to promote the politics of Rome and the figure of its emperor. On the other hand, admission to the order of the Augustales and active part...

 An oppidum was a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town create by Celtic. The Celtic settlements continued to be used until the Romans conquered Southern and Western Europe.  In 194 BC a group of three hundred Roman citizens, with their respective families, settled on the slopes of an impervious hill in the northern part of the Sele plain (Ager Picentinus), giving rise to the city of Salernum.  According to the historian Tito Livio, the foundation of this new colony takes place in a pre-existing fortified center , with the aim of garrisoning the territory previously inhabited by the Picentini. A Roman city worthy of the name had to have an amphitheater, forum, temples, theater, baths, aqueducts and, more generally, a building aspect of a certain type, with straight streets that crossed at right angles, possibly well paved and equipped with a sewer system, lined with brick houses. Subsequently other settlers were sent to Salerno and in 199 BC Scipio transformed the S...

The upper part of the historic center of Salerno, called also called "Noba Civitas" from Longobards, is a well protected area and difficult to reach from the hinterland, at the foot of the Bonadies hills, slightly sloping towards the sea, between the Fusandola streams, to the west, and the San Eremita to the east. The area possessed a number of natural characteristics that made it an ideal place: it was isolated, without great pre-existing structures, rich in water, an indispensable feature for self-sufficiency. The "Plaium Montis" district, with the northern wall of the ancient city at the base and the tower around which the castle will grow at the top, was the prominent part of the triangular shape assumed by the medieval city. Urbanized more by monasteries than by houses, it had inside, with the favor of the many springs in the area of La Palma, in Coriariis in general, in San Martino in particular, the city center of the tanning industry. In the Middle Ages, the...

 To indicate the city as a fortified place, Latin uses three words with similar meanings: "castrum", "castellum", and "oppidum". The term "castrum", with the addition of the term to the name of the place, indicated the camp fortified by the legionaries: these were mostly built in wood, and it is for this reason that today we do not find any trace of them. The entry "oppidum" instead has its original meaning in every space surrounded by walls, and consequently the meaning of a fortified place but also of a city is taken up. The original nucleus of the Roman colony of Salernum was a castrum, a military camp. The Roman castrums were not designed to withstand long sieges, as we are used to seeing in films about medieval castles with catapults, towers, fiery arrows, etc., but they had to prevent enemies militarily "primitive" and militarily backward, armed with a sword, shield and ladder, penetrated inside the military camp. A seri...

 In 268 BC, Romans deported, from the Adriatic coast, 360 thousand Picentini (an ancient Italic people), founding among other things the town of Picentia (now Pontecagnano).  In Hannibal’s military campaigns in Southern Italy, during the Second Punic War (218-202 BC), the Picentini rose up and came over to the Carthaginian. For this reason, at the end of the conflict, the Romans forced them to live scattered on the territory. The city was violently destroyed during the Social War (90-89 BC) and there was the consequent dispersion of the inhabitants in smaller suburban villages.

 The civil system, distinct between the Order and the People (Ordo Populusque) provided that the administration of the peculiar public and the care of public affairs remained with the citizens and the nobles, and that the offices remained divided between the nobility and the people. The certainly functional buildings of Roman propaganda are those intended for public events, and in particular the theaters and amphitheaters. Unfortunately, no monumental remains of the time have come down to us, because the Roman remains lie at a considerable depth compared to today's city, buried by catastrophic floods such as that of the 4th / 5th century AD. Salerno at the time of the Empire already had a reputation as a holiday city. Quinto Orazio Flacco, in the 15th epistle published in 20 BC, having an eye disease, perhaps ophthalmia, decides to go on vacation to the sea and wants to escape from too well-known places such as Baia. He then turns to his friend Numonio Vala and asks him: "What...

Salernum has grown on itself in a continuous overlapping of the levels of attendance. This succession, commonly referred to as "palinsesto", it has not spared any of the buildings of the historical center, under which lies the whole  old Roman settlement. Anyway the first documented Roman presence in the area was not a city but a Castrum, a stable encampment fortified by legionaries. The position of this stable was probably in Plaium Montis. Salernum as oppidum is, for the first time, remembered with certainty in the year 197 BC when (with the lex Atinia de coloniis quinque deducendis), Rome decided to found five civium colonies on the coasts of Campania and the neighboring Lucania Tyrrhenian ones, including a brand new close the Castrum Salerni. So in the first years of life of the "Castrum quo in loco nunc oppidum est", the new Roman trade colony (made by simple citizens) and the ancient military castrum had to coexist, since the latter probably performed the task...

 

Due to its location and the confluence of some important roads of Roman origin, as well as the discovery of archaeological finds, scholars believe that it was the forum of the Roman colony, the political and commercial center of the city.

The rest of ancient Oscan-Etruscan settlement of Irnthi (Fratte) are still located and visible on the northern periphery of Salerno, on a low, flat hill.  The area is part of a much larger settlement, situated in a dominant position at the confluence of the river Irno with the Pastorano and Grancano torrents. The position of the site has always had, within the Irno valley, a strategic value in controlling the natural transport routes, from the nearby Irno river and from the proximity to the sea and the Sorrento peninsula, and an important role in favoring connections among Greeks, Etruscans, and indigenous peoples inhabiting the Gulf of Poseidonia, to the south, and the areas of Sarno, Cumae and Volturno, to the north. The foundation of Fratte is to be understood as the result of a shift of aristocratic members linked to Tarquinia and Vulci in order to move the Etruscan commercial center of gravity to Campania further north, to counter Poseidonia.  Since its creation, the clea...

 "Marcinae oppidum illud est, quonunc dicitur vulgo Veteri" - Filippo Cluverio, 1642 The first part could derive from the personal name Marcius with the addition of the suffix "-anus" which indicates belonging to the feminine, therefore "-ana". The specification indicates proximity to the port. The existence of an ancient city there is clear confirmation in the denomination "locus Veteri" assumed by the Vietri territory in Lombard period and which eans old or ancient city. The term bears memory of a previous settlement, attributable to the old Etruscan and Samnite Marcina.  The Amalfi Coast in pre-Roman times belonged to Etruscan jurisdiction, as reported in the “Geography”  of Strabone: the hilly area depended on the city of Nuceria Alfaterna, the maritime area ox n the city of Marcìnae. The Vietri area, with the anchorage of Fuenti, had a sheltered port, a unique landing place, since the beach of nearby Salerno, near the mouth of the Irno, wa...

Paestum was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia (southern Italy). It was established by Dorians. After its foundation by Greek colonists under the name of Poseidonia, it was eventually conquered by the local Lucanians and later the Romans. The Lucanians renamed it to Paistos and the Romans gave the city its current name. The city is famous for its Ancient Greek fresco as well as three ancient Greek temples of the Doric order, dating from about 600 to 450 BC, all of which are in a remarkable state of preservation. The city walls and amphitheater are largely intact, and the bottom of the walls of many other structures remain, as well as the cobblestone roads that still cross the city. However, the necropolis nearby holds one of the most spectacular treasures of all that are to be found in Paestum. The “Tomb of the Diver” has the only preserved fresco, or wall painting, from the Greek classical period anywhere in the entire world. The tomb may sh...

At the time of the transition between prehistory and history, the Etruscans (or Tirreni) built a high civilization in the heart of Italy, long before Rome, laying the foundations for the future rise of Europe. Starting from Tuscany, they expanded southwards until they reached Campania, colliding with the colonies of Magna Graecia. Tirreni was an exonym used by Greek authors to refer, in a generic sense, to non-Greek peoples, and to barbarian pirates. It is also the name with which the Greeks called theyr enemies Etruscans, Nuceria Alfaterna (Nocera), Marcìna (Vietri sul Mare), Irnthi (Fratte), Amina (Pontecagnano) could have formed an Etruscan urban confederation derived from the inclusion in the large area between Sorrento and Poseidonia (the Roman Paestum) to prevent its complete Greekization like the Italian southeast. Anyway, with the battle of Cuma in 474 BC (naval clash fought between the Siceliot Syracusan and the Etruscan fleets), the Syracusan put an end to the Etruscan expans...

The toponym Salernum, rather than from the traditional "salum", that is sea, derives more probably from the prelatin hydronymy base "sal", that is channel, watercourse, or, rather, marsh (Sal-ernum, place of marshes, once existing near the it costs). Regarding the origin of the name, among other hypotheses, Antonio Mazza wrote that Patriarch Noè came twice to Italy, and the second time he lived there for thirty-three years; that falling in love with the waters of the Irno river, he ordered his eldest son to embellish its right bank with a city; that out of devout obedience Sem threw the first stone and, after several years, Salt son of Arfaxad, and great-grandson of Noè, accomplished the noble city, giving it his name coupled to the Irno. Thus removing the contradiction between the acts of SS. Martiri Fortunato, Gaio e Ante, and the name Salerno: Sale, Mazza says, "filium Arfaxad, Noe pronepotem Salernum condidisse, illique nomen dedisse: nec contradiclionem im...

Much has been written about the foundation of Salerno "a little above the sea", without however having certain proofs to support the various theories. Locally Salerno was born after. After Paestum (around 600 BC), after Nuceria (6th century BC), after Vietri, after Pontecagnano (between the 9th and 8th centuries BC) MAP. So the history of the city can be read only under the lens of different previous circumstances. We too will try to give our interpretation, starting from some assumptions: With all probability there were  -in the same area- italic villages and hamlets called "Salernum" older than the Roman castrum and oppidum; the Vietri/Salerno area is particularly favored by an excellent geographical position, which allowed it, in ancient times, to dominate the trade that took place in the gulf between Campania and Lucania on the sea routes connecting the Levantine markets and those of the western Mediterranean, and then ensured them; the historical city extends f...

Salerno is stretched between the sea and the hills. The whole area it's full of smell and colours that will allow you to get lost and immediately you feel you are part of history. The city has seen several populations pass over the centuries: Etruscans, Romans, Lombards, and Normans that chose it as the capital of their southern Italy kingdom. Just as the walls of the ancient city remain in place to bear witness to history, so in the blood and habits of today's inhabitants there remain traces of that past that has contributed to making them as they are today. The old centre of Salerno is a great place, with character and authenticity to spare. It is all fairly compact and close to the dock station. When you arrive, make sure to set aside some time to wander around this historical fascinating area, almost pedestrian, much quieter and less touristy than Naples. Be ready to relaxed walk 5 km through and discover a unique charm of ancient beauty and even more interesting shops. The...