The Head of Apollo, found at Gulf of Salerno in 1930. is a late Hellenistic find, dated in the first half of the 1st century. B.C. by archaeologist D. Mustillie. The scholar attributes it to the artist Pasiteles, born in Magna Graecia and defined by the ancient writers summus and artifex diligentissimus. The soft shapes of the Apollo, according to Mustilli, give the bronze "the impression of an immediate translation from the plastic model: the softness of the flesh is felt in the cheeks, in the knobs and, above all, in the profiled annuli of the neck".

Three bases of honorary statues with Latin inscriptions come from Largo Abate Conforti, probably seat of the Roman Court. The bases, dated between the 4th and the 5th century AD, are now stored in the garden of the Provincial Archaeological Museum (Via S. Benedetto).

The first recalls the statue of Emperor Costantino built between 312 and 315 from the "ordo populusque salernitanus", the senate of the city that, like any other empire, had to have a sculpture of the king in charge.

The second is the dedication of a statue to Elena, Emperor Costantino ’s mother, built between 324 and 326 by an Alpinus Magnus, "corrector", that is governor, of the Province of Lucania and Bruzio.

The third statue was accompanied by the dedication of the 5th century to Arrius Maecius Gracchus, generous patron of Salerno, who gave again courage to the people escaping from the city after the flood.

The "Avori Salernitani" are a cycle of 67 ivory tablets (originally there were about seventy) depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament from the Cathedral of Salerno and exhibited for the most part in the local Diocesan Museum. Due to their almost completeness and excellent state of conservation, they represent the most important ivory decorative cycle in the world.

We do not know who commissioned the imposing work, nor what exactly it was intended for: it seems to have been established, based on studies begun in the thirties and still in progress, that they were carried out almost exclusively for the Salerno Cathedral, where they were always kept until to the second world war.

Overall, the cycle presents three, if not four different decorative styles, as many as the authors are believed to have been (two for the Old Testament, at least two others, if not three for the New) and also their origins: they were identified possible Northern European, Arab and Byzantine "workers", with specific references to ivory cycles produced in nearby Amalfi, but also in Northern Italy (especially the Ivories of Grado). However, the precise "choice" of the episodes depicted suggests that behind the authors there was a specific and certainly cultured commission, perhaps ecclesiastical. To confirm this, all the figures, even the humblest, never appear rough or uncultivated, but always worked with extreme precision and finesse.

We do not know who commissioned the imposing work, nor what exactly it was intended for: it seems to have been established, based on studies begun in the thirties and still in progress, that they were carried out almost exclusively for the Salerno Cathedral, where they were always kept until to the second world war.

The technique used is that of direct engraving on the tablets, with many initial sketches of the work completed - and there is still a clear trace of it - on the back of the same, after having been soaked in vinegar to iron them and make them more ductile. to processing; to this is added the technique, of Carolingian derivation, of the direct fusion on the ivory of beads of black glass paste as decoration for the eyes of the characters.

The main value of the Salernitani ivories lies in their conservation: in fact, despite the almost one thousand years of age, the tablets still retain their splendid straw yellow color, very "warm" as well as pleasant; this is probably due to the fact that they were often polished, and kept away from direct sources of heat, which would inevitably have blackened them.

Currently almost all the tablets are exhibited at the Diocesan Museum of Salerno, except for the (fortunately very few) lost and another ten divided between the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the State Museums of Berlin (Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin), the Hermitage of St. Petersburg and the Museum of Fine Arts of Budapest (Szépmüvészeti Múzeum).

Under the Lombard Prince Gisulfo II (1052/1077) the monetary art of the Salerno mint reached levels of great elegance. The coin shows in the beaded outline, the image of the prince half-length with a diadem and scepter in his right hand and mystical plant in the left. Always in a beaded outline, there is a fortified Salerno, seen from the sea, with the writing "Opulenta Salernum".

In the Medieval age, the coastal cities acquire the materials through maritime trade: from Paestum to Salerno-Amalfi to Naples-Pozzuoli-Ostia-Roma, but also through regional routes: Nuceria-Capua-Benevento, full of roman spolia.

The phenomenon of the reuse of the ancient in architecture is a widespread practice in the monumental complexes of medieval Campania, in particular in the center of Salerno. It is a city that built its own cultural identity during the medieval period by appropriating the ancient from the ruins of Roman sites to exhibit them as real trophies and symbols of memory

Roman reused stems and capitals were used as a support for the foundations, for embellishment or to protect the walls from the passage of the wheels of the wagons. They are present not only in the Duomo area but also along the numerous alleys of the ancient city. It is difficult to describe them all: many are also well hidden in the seventeenth-eighteenth-century palaces or in the churches of the historic center, however it is possible to hypothesize a path that embraces most of them.

Starting from Piazza Sedile di Portanova there are numerous bare columns along via Mercanti (the ancient Via Drapperia) where, as the historian Paolo Peduto states, there were: "extended and elegant arcades, supported by bare columns and capitals, where the merchants, in fact, carried out their business. Some clearly visible traces of these arcades have remained even if for the most part they remain incorporated in the rooms of modern shops ". bare that belonged to the Arechian regia (east side) and that support round brick arches. One in particular is in a precarious condition, while the others are partly hidden by a tangle of electrical wires and wooden panels.

The group of columns that support the round vaults under Palazzo Pinto is truly particular. Two further columns with capitals, also in Corinthian style, can be seen along the vicolo della Neve, climbing instead via dei Canali, while a column is found. maltenuta at an angle on Larghetto San Pietro a Corte, in its lower part, while in the upper part its columns meet at the corners of the buildings, one on the left and the other on the right. They have different capitals: the one to the east is in Doric style and the other is in elegant Corinthian style, the latter with a fluted shaft.

Not far from the corner column, another poorly maintained column is present on via Porta Rateprandi still embedded in the wall, with a fluted shaft and Corinthian capital, whose acanthus leaves have been partly plundered (frame the historical-architectural element a nice heap of garbage all leaning against the column).

In the upper part of the historic center, two columns with Doric capitals can be seen between the Salita di San Bartolomeo and via Tasso, one of which was partially destroyed. Going back down, you pass through vicolo Duca Ruggiero where you meet a further column located in the corner with vicolo Municipio Vecchio, made up of a smooth shaft and capital partially embedded in the Corinthian-style wall and from which it departs once.

Largo Sedile del Campo, there is a column with a broken shaft and a white stone capital with large acanthus leaves, positioned in front of the monumental seventeenth-century fountain of Largo Campo, at the corner of via Dogana Vecchia.

Other columns are present along Vicolo Adelberga at the base of the Palazzo Fruscione, in the corners that delimit the palatial house of the Angevin period most likely contemporary with the palace: both of white marble, the one to the west is conical in shape and has a bas-relief of a tree in the central part, while the other, to the east, it has a smooth shaft with a capital with large leaves and overhanging volutes.

Continuing along Vicolo Adelberga, almost close to the western part of Palazzo D'Avossa, there are two elegant columns with capitals from which a pointed arch starts, the capitals are both in Corinthian style with smooth stems and simple abacuses above, always smooth.

In alley Grimoaldo, they support a low-arched vault: the one to the north is in good condition and consists of a simple shaft and Corinthian capital, while the other was, unfortunately, partly destroyed not many years ago.

On the back of the absidal part of the Cathedral there is a large and suggestive corner column composed of a smooth shaft and a Corinthian-style capital kept in fair condition.

Continuing further east, there are further precious columns along the southern slope of the Convent of San Michele, of light marble with simple shafts and capitals (with a slight conical shape) composed of large leaves surmounted by simple abacuses. Corner column on via S'Alferio, partly still recessed with Corinthian capital partially defaced.

Finally, on the pronaos of the monastery of San Benedetto we find three round arches supported by bare columns with Corinthian capitals most likely from the Hadrianic age. On the eastern side, however, you can see what remains of the ancient quadriporticus of the Convent, destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century.

The "Polyptych of Buccino" by Andrea Sabatini represents one of the most valuable works of the art collection of the Province of Salerno and is currently exhibited at the Pinacoteca Provinciale. It comes from the Augustinian church of S. Antonio abate di Buccino, for which was commissioned in 1512, and was transferred to Salerno in the late 1920s.

The painting originally included, in the upper register, the figures of the saints Nicola da Tolentino, Giovanni Battista, Nicola di Bari and Giovanni Evangelista. There is no trace of them anymore. Only the whole and isolated figure of the Archangel Michael remains at the top, in the center of the polyptych.

At the base of the painting there was a predella with saints and the coat of arms of the noble family of the Caracciolo dukes to which the Duke of Brienza, Caggiano and Buccino, Petraccone Caracciolo belonged. The work was most likely commissioned by Petraccone's brother, Francesco, who at the time held the position of prior of the Bari basilica of San Nicola.

Dimensionally, the work had to be considerable, approximately four meters high by two and a half meters wide. Lacking, today, the aforementioned painted panels and the wooden structure of the monumental carved and gilded frame, only four painted panels have been preserved.

The polyptych of the Augustinian church of Buccino was made at a time when the author, Andrea da Salerno, highlighted a stylistic vein linked to Leonardo and Raphael's influences, between 1512 and 1515 approximately, also in the wake of the contacts he had with Cesare from Sesto and, even before, thanks to the trip he probably made to Rome.

Also known as the "Madonna Coming from the Sea", the sacred Byzantine table in cedar wood depicting the Madonna in Majesty with Child, angels and donors (called of Constantinople) dates back to the mid-14th century. She arrived on the beach located in front of the monastery, current Palazzo Sant'Agostino as well as the seat of the Province of Salerno, in 1453. Legend has it that a ship that escaped from Constantinople lost it following a shipwreck.

For the second edition of the festival “Door to door”, a contemporary art itinerary in the spaces of the Old City Center, Pierfrancesco Solimene replaced some elements of the flooring made up of large stones (a basolato) of the old city center with polychrome ceramic plates.

The young artist from Salerno gave new life to the traditional technique of ceramic, using it to create a contemporary and poetic visual “stumbling block” in the heart of the ancient city.