Prehistory and antiquity The area of what is now Salerno has been continuously settled since
pre-historical times, as the discoveries of Neolithic mummy remains documents. Inhabited by
Oscan-speaking populations, the region was colonized by the
Etruscans, who founded the city of
Irnthi in the 6th century BC, across the Irno river, in what is today the urban district of Fratte, as a part of their
Dodecapolis political model that they had essentially replicated in
Campania. This settlement represented an important base for Etruscan trade with the nearby Greek colonies of
Posidonia and
Elea. It was occupied by the
Samnites around the 5th century BC as a consequence of the
Battle of Cumae (474 BC) as part of the
Syracusan sphere of influence. With the
Roman advance in Campania, Irna began to lose its importance, being supplanted by the new Roman colony (197 BC) of
Salernum, developing around an initial
castrum. The new city, which gradually lost its military function in favour of its role as a trade centre, was connected to Rome by the
Via Popilia, which ran towards
Lucania and
Reggio Calabria. Archaeological remains, although fragmentary, suggest the idea of a flourishing and lively city. Under the Emperor
Diocletian, in the late 3rd century AD, Salernum became the administrative centre of the
Lucania and
Bruttii province. In the following century, during the
Gothic Wars, the Goths were defeated by the
Byzantines, and the Salerno briefly returned to the control of
Constantinople (from 553 to 568), before the
Lombards invaded almost the whole peninsula. Like many coastal cities of southern Italy (
Gaeta,
Sorrento,
Amalfi), Salerno initially remained untouched by the newcomers, falling only in 646. It subsequently became part of the
Duchy of Benevento.
Middle Ages to early modern age Under the Lombard dukes, Salerno enjoyed a splendid period of growth. In 774
Arechis II of Benevento transferred the seat of the
Duchy of Benevento to Salerno, in order to elude
Charlemagne's offensive and to secure for himself the control of a strategic area, the centre of coastal and internal communications in Campania. Under Arechis II, Salerno became a centre of studies with its famous
Medical School. The Lombard prince ordered the city to be fortified; the Castle on the Bonadies mountain had already been built with walls and towers. In 839 Salerno declared independence from Benevento, becoming the capital of a flourishing principality stretching out to
Capua, northern
Calabria and
Apulia up to
Taranto. In 871–872, the
Aghlabids besieged Salerno, but the city was relieved by
Louis II of Italy. Around the year 1000 prince
Guaimar IV annexed
Amalfi,
Sorrento,
Gaeta and the whole duchy of
Apulia and
Calabria, starting to conceive a future unification of the whole southern Italy under Salerno's arms. The coins minted in the city circulated all over the Mediterranean, with the
Opulenta Salernum wording to certify its richness. However, the stability of the Principate was continually shaken by the
Saracen attacks and, most of all, by internal struggles. In 1056, one of the numerous plots led to the fall of Guaimar. His weaker son
Gisulf II succeeded him, but the decline of the principality had begun. In 1077 Salerno reached its zenith but soon lost all its territory to the Normans. 's
Canon On 13 December 1076, the Norman conqueror
Robert Guiscard, who had married Guaimar IV's daughter
Sikelgaita, besieged Salerno and defeated his brother-in-law Gisulf. In this period the royal palace of Castel Terracena and the
cathedral were built, and science was promoted as the
Schola Medica Salernitana, open to
women like
Trota of Salerno and
Mercuriade also, considered the most ancient medical institution of the European West, reached its maximum splendour with texts like
Trotula. By the late 11th century, the city was home to 50,000 people. In 1100, Salerno was made the capital of Norman southern Italy, after
Melfi. Salerno was an important city of the Normans for half a century, but with the
Norman conquest of southern Italy, the city of
Palermo started to overtake Salerno in status. Salerno played a little part in the fall of the
County of Sicily, after the
Emperor Henry VI's invasion on behalf of his wife,
Constance, the heiress to the kingdom, in 1191, Salerno surrendered and promised loyalty on the news of an incoming army. This had so disgusted the archbishop,
Nicolò d'Aiello (from Naples), that he abandoned the city and fled to
Naples, which held out in a siege. In 1194, the situation reversed itself: Naples capitulated, along with most other cities of the
Mezzogiorno, and only Salerno resisted. It was sacked and pillaged, much reducing its importance and prosperity. Henry had his reasons, though. He had entrusted Constance to some important Salerno citizens (advised & ruled by the archbishop d'Aiello) and after his retreat from invasion in 1191 they had received letters about the events from Nicolò D'Aiello and so betrayed Henry, attacked Constance at Castel Terracena and handed her over to King
Tancred of Sicily, making the Empress captive for nearly one year. The combined treachery and stubbornness of D'Aiello and his followers cost Salerno much after the
Hohenstaufen conquest: Henry's son,
Frederick II, moreover, issued a series of edicts that reduced Salerno's role in favour of Naples (in particular, the foundation of the
University of Naples in that city). At
Charles II of Naples, his father
Charles I of Anjou granted the Principality of Salerno in the Kingdom of Sicily (or Regno) in 1272. From the 14th century onwards, most of the Salerno province became the territory of the Princes of
Sanseverino, powerful feudal lords who acted as real owners of the region. They accumulated enormous political and administrative power and attracted artists and men of letters in their own princely palace. In the 15th century, the city was the scene of battles between the
Angevin and the
Aragonese royal houses with whom the local lords took sides alternatingly. In the first decades of the 16th century, the last descendant of the Sanseverino princes,
Ferdinando Sanseverino, was in conflict with the viceroy of the king of
Spain, mainly because of his opposition to the
Inquisition, causing the ruin of the whole family and the beginning of a long period of decadence for the city. A slow renewal of the city occurred in the 18th century with the end of the Spanish dominion and the construction of many refined houses and churches characterising the main streets of the historical centre. In 1799 Salerno was incorporated into the
Parthenopean Republic. During the
Napoleonic era, first
Joseph Bonaparte and then
Joachim Murat ascended the Neapolitan throne. The latter decreed the closing of the Schola Medica Salernitana, which had been declining for decades to the level of a theoretical school. In the same period, even the religious orders were suppressed and numerous ecclesiastical properties were confiscated. The city expanded beyond the ancient walls and sea connections were potentiated as they represented an important road network that crossed the town connecting the eastern plain with the area leading to Vietri and
Naples.
Late modern and contemporary Salerno was an active center of
Carbonari activities supporting the unification of Italy in the 19th century. The majority of the population of Salerno supported ideas of the
Risorgimento against the
Bourbon, and in 1861 many of them joined
Garibaldi in his struggle for unification. After the
unification of Italy, a slow urban development continued, many suburban areas were enlarged and large public and private buildings were created. The city went on developing until
World War II. Its population rose from 20,000 people around 1861s unification to 80,000 in the early 20th century. During the 19th century, foreign industries started settling in Salerno: in 1830 the first textile mill was established by the Swiss entrepreneur Züblin Vonwiller, followed by Schlaepfer-Wenner's textile mills and dye factories; the Wenner family settled permanently in Salerno. In 1877 the city was the site of as many as 21 textile mills employing around ten thousand workers; in comparison with the four thousand employed in Turin's textile industry, Salerno was sometimes referred to as the "
Manchester of the two Sicilies". In September 1943, during World War II, Salerno was the scene of
Operation Avalanche, the
invasion of Italy launched by the
Allies of World War II, and suffered a great deal of damage.
Henry Wellesley, 6th Duke of Wellington, who was killed in action during the fighting, is buried in Salerno War Cemetery. From 12 February to 17 July 1944, it hosted the Government of Marshal
Pietro Badoglio. In those months Salerno was the provisional government seat of the
Kingdom of Italy, and the King
Vittorio Emanuele III lived in a mansion in its outskirts. After the war the population of the city doubled in a few years, going from 80,000 in 1946 to nearly 160,000 in 1976. ==Geography==