Villa Avenia

Recognized to this day for his generosity and great humanity,Dr. Avenia had opened his mansion in the nineteenth century to accommodate anyone in need of continuous care, at a time when the city had no long-stay health facilities.

He chose this site in the historic center because of its particular location between the sea and the hills, which made it a particularly salubrious place, just as centuries earlier –for the same reasons –he was Matteo Silvatico who elected this area of the city to the cultivation of the medicinal herbs that made famous the Scuola Medica Salernitana.

The garden formerly belonged to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, founded in 1235 by the “Venerable Order of Saint Damian”. The nuns built a aqueduct that served all the vegetable gardens in the area. Their aqueduct captured water from the springs of the Acquarola (the spring is also called San Leo spring) located upstream from the village of Canalone. This aqueduct, some of which still survives today, brings water to gardens in the area.

The monastery was closed in 1572. The nuns were moved to the Monastery of St. Michael.

The garden can be reached by walking along Via Tasso and passing through the’archway that commemorates the ancient Ronca Gate.

The street that leads into this area is called Spinosa and is a pretty lane surrounded by walls that protect vegetable gardens and gardens. The name recalls the “prunus spinosa” which, at one time, covered the area.

Turning toward the sea is “Torre dei ladri“. It is said that from its battlements were hung the bodies of the executed.

Following Spinosa Street, one comes to a small square where there is a palace bordering a small garden on the left side. This was the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.