centro storico, costiero, Salerno, Salernnum (denominazione storica, epoca romana)

Salerno’s historic core, the centro storico, stretches along a low, sandy coast before climbing the slopes of the hills behind to its oldest quarter, crowned by castle ruins. The Roman city of Salernum lies buried beneath it: the medieval town grew directly over its predecessor, so that today the ancient grid is only faintly traced by the modern streets, the decumanus maximus and cardo maximus roughly followed by Via Tasso and Via dei Canali. Beneath houses and public squares, excavations have revealed fragments of that earlier life. Visible remains of Roman baths survive between Palazzo Fruscione and the Cappella Palatina, and elsewhere in Vicolo della Neve. The forum likely occupied what is now Piazza Abate Conforti, whose shape still echoes the Roman piazza. Piazza Flavio Gioia, the ‘Rotonda’, was once thought to mark the theatre; archaeologists now dismiss the idea, but its perfect curve and sea view keep the suggestion alive. Above all this, the medieval city, Lombard and Norman, weaves its own labyrinth of alleys, churches and noble palaces, repeatedly remade over centuries.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.