Instant Cities: Salerno

Salerno › Places and landmarks

Duomo di San Matteo

Cattedrale di Salerno

The Norman cathedral over the tomb of Saint Matthew the Evangelist, with an arcaded courtyard and a bell tower of the 12th century.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Robert Guiscard, the Norman who had just taken Salerno, built the cathedral from 1080, and Pope Gregory VII consecrated it in 1084. The pope died in exile in Salerno a year later and lies buried here. In the crypt, covered in baroque marble and frescoes, are the relics of Saint Matthew, brought to Salerno in 954.

You go in through a courtyard of arches on old Roman columns, lined with Roman sarcophagi, and through bronze doors cast in Constantinople. The bell tower beside it, with its round top, is the landmark of the old town. Visit it in 3D ›

More in Salerno

Via dei MercantiThe merchants’ street of the medieval town, a narrow lane of shops across the whole centro storico. Lungomare TriesteThe seafront promenade under the palms, with the Gulf of Salerno in front and the Amalfi Coast on the horizon. Corso Vittorio EmanueleSalerno’s long shopping street, closed to cars, from the old town to the station. Teatro VerdiThe town’s opera house of 1872, a small copy of the San Carlo in Naples, red and gold inside. Villa ComunaleThe town’s 19th-century garden, shady and green, between the Teatro Verdi and the sea. Giardino della MinervaA garden of medicinal plants on terraces above the old town, among the oldest botanical gardens in Europe. Medieval aqueductThe tall arches of the medieval aqueduct, which legend says the devil built in a single night. Stazione MarittimaZaha Hadid’s ferry terminal on the Molo Manfredi, where the boats leave for Amalfi, Positano and Capri. Castello di ArechiThe castle on the hill above the town, strengthened by the Lombard prince Arechis II, with the whole gulf at its feet. Scuola Medica SalernitanaThe first medical school of medieval Europe, where women taught and practised medicine too. Luci d’ArtistaEvery winter artists light up the streets, squares and gardens of Salerno with huge installations of light. SfogliatellaThe shell of crisp layered pastry filled with ricotta and semolina, born in a convent on the Amalfi Coast.