Via Croce, ph. +39 089227237
At 300 mt. Above sea level, the Castle dominates the city, representing the Northern top of a triangular defensive scheme which coincides with the scope of the Bonadies Mountain.
The scheme is always re-proposed both in miniaturistic representations, such as those by Pietro da Eboli at the end of the XII century, and in the graphical ones, as well as in a location plan of 1790, when by now a farmhouse had been located on a part of its ruined structures.
Its embattled image was also resumed in the last Longobard coinage, bordered all round by the legend of "Opulenta Salerno".
When it was bought by the Provincial Administration of Salerno in 1960, the castle was completely restored in 1982. During the works a remarkable quantity of medieval ceramics (with red stripes, spiral-ware, graffito-like and protomajolica) and of coins (three ripostigli: Norman money, golden tari and Aragonese silver carlins) was recovered.
In the restored area a first exhibition of the materials of the castle, a show-room and a large hall for congresses and meetings have been created.
Recent excavations allow to define the chronology of the most ancient building phase thanks to the excavation of borders of an intact stratiography.
This ancient building consists of a squared structure made of rows of quadrangular blocks, which represents the work of Byzantine hands in the VI century, who followed the structural methods of the unforgettable Roman world.
Even if ancient sources, such as the Anonymous (L'Anonimo) of Chronicon in the X century, emphasized the promotion of a great reinforcement work of the defensive structure of the city on behalf of Longobard Prince Arechi II in the VIII century, the Norman period is more documented. Angevin and Aragonese periods were already known and the area involved in the already-mentioned restoration of the Seventies was the one concerning the Aragonese enlargement.
An important element, the acquisition of the Bastiglia Tower (Torre Bastiglia) in June 1990, increased the value of the reinforcement works of Salerno, as well as the landscape relationship with the city.
This semaphoric tower is located in the northern part of the castle with a sighting function in support of the more important defensive structure.