It is the oldest known for the Lombard period and one of the most important urban monasteries in Salerno. It is a female monastery, certainly of the Benedictine order, but whose origin and founder are not known. The first document, datable between 718 and 719, informs that the Duke of Benevento Romualdo II (706-731) donated to the abbess Agata of the monastery«casam et curticellam et cannetum"In"suburbanam salernitanam civitatem" This news could trace the foundation between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th century, a period in which the Lombard aristocracy favored the construction of monasteries to facilitate the spread of Catholicism among the population. 

The church of San Giorgio is commonly judged as "the most beautiful baroque church" in the city. The monastery is divided into two large wings on the sides of the church, one to the north and another to the south. This configuration would suggest an original medieval nucleus and an expansion in the modern age on the sides.. In fact, it is located a short distance from the entrance to the current church, but with an opposite orientation indicating that the original entrance was on the west side. A marble pluteo belongs to this period, now preserved in the Diocesan Museum of the Cathedral of Salerno, depicting a central cross inserted in a circumference, common in the early medieval artistic culture of the Campania-Lazio area, inspired by models of early Christian and Byzantine origin. The construction of the new church with the overturning of the plant took place in the last decades of the 16th century, as evidenced by the Sacred Visit of 1574, which states that works are in progress. Previously, the Renaissance portal had been built, commissioned by the abbess Lucrezia Santomagno, which, however, was not in its present position. 

In the church, the remains of the original Lombard church, dating back to 1,300 years ago, are hidden under the baroque floor, visible thanks to a mechanical system for opening the floor  It is an apse frescoed with braided geometric motifs in ocher, black and red, in the lower part a theory of Saints indicates a place in the pre-Desiderian medieval artistic culture of Campania (before 1071). VIDEO

Other places to visit nearby

Chiesa di Sant'Agostino - The Church is what remains today of the ancient and important convent founded in 1309 and incorporated today in the Palazzo Sant’Agostino, seat of the provincial administration. It once stood outside the city walls and almost on the beach. The first reconstruction of the church of Sant’Agostino in Salerno, dating back to 1500, transformed the style into Baroque, a fate that affected almost all the ancient city churches. The Madonna of Constantinople is exposed on the altar. VIDEO

Palazzo Clarizia - The church of Santa Maria de Domno possessed in 1035, on the later area of Palazzo Clarizia, a palace, mainly used as the residence of its priests. It is accessed by a door obtained in the 19th-century tompagnatura of the original vaulted arc, in an unspecified period, in any case prior to the 17th century, on the atrium of the church of Santa Maria de Domno. Located on the east-west axis, rectory for the time, with entrance from the west, the church possessed, in the area later of Palazzo Clarizia, houses, defined in 1035 as the main building of Santa Maria de Domno, mainly used as a residence of their own priests, who from that century will be monks of Cava with the title of prior. When it was built, from the atrium of Santa Maria de Domno one entered a small door, a pusterola, open in the city walls, to which the church was leaning with its southern side, towards the sea. On 8 May 1328 we find that the soldier Pietro Comite had built a building that closed the pusterola; it being clear that he could have done so much only by virtue of real or alleged rights related to the possession of the former main building of the church, it is believed that these had been alienated for some time by the abbots of Cavensi. We do not know if the intimation addressed to the Comite to demolish what was built and reopen the passage had an effect; it is certain that, in the course of time, the area in front of the church will not only have no outlets towards the sea, but will also be covered and dominated by expansive buildings of the adjacent building, 

Chiesa S. Maria De Domno - Princess Sichelgaita, consort of Prince Giovanni II di Lamberto, reigning in Salerno between 983 and 999, built a church under the title of Santa Maria, later known as de Domno, in her own land located "inter murum et muricinum", in the urban expansion built by equipping the curtain towards the sea of the prelongobard Salerno with a rampart. There church has a basilica plan with a Byzantine termination a three apses and three naves divided by columns and bare capitals. A part of the northern nave remains, marked by a pair of trunks of columns with identical composite type Corinthian capitals and a few others fragments of remains  Today the church is deconsecrated and has been transformed into a renowned restaurant and tea room, as well as a "stage" for art events and musical concerts, so it is possible to visit its medieval remains. Outside is still visible the bell tower leaning against Palazzo Clarizia and used as a stairwell.

Palazzo Galliciano - Very articulated complex of houses, courtyards and gardens, in 1524 we find it in the possession of the Galliciano family, who also owned a turret to protect their neighborhood. The entrance is a 15th-century portal, of typical Durazzo architecture, which recalls the stylistic elements of that of Palazzo Penna in Naples, built in 1406 by Antonio di Penne, secretary of King Ladislao. Our portal, located just to the east of the surviving bell tower of Santa Maria de Domno (number 71 of via Masuccio Salernitano), constitutes with it the points of reference that allow us to know that in the last six centuries the width of the Longobard Via Carraria, dear to Salerno as an alley of the Casicavalli. 

Chiesa di Santa Lucia de Judaica - The church could probably date back to around the year 1000, being mentioned as "Santa Maria del Mare" as early as 1072. This was built in the ancient quarter of the Judecca, located within the city walls, where the Jews lived. The current appearance of the church dates back to the restoration work of 1861. The façade is raised above the street level and characterized by four pilasters which end with a triangular tympanum. The building has a single rectangular nave with a semicircular apse and three chapels on each side. The roof consists of a barrel vaulted ceiling with lunettes. On the vault are represented the Holy Family, Jesus with the Apostles and the pious women in front of the sepulcher. The statue of Saint Lucia is placed in a niche in the apse.