Fruscione Palace

Between vicolo Adelberga and vicolo dei Barbuti, on the northern side of the Church of S. Pietro a Corte, stands thepalazzo known as “Fruscione”, from the surname of the last family that inhabited it and to which it was expropriated to make it public property.

Built in the mid-13th century, it was mistakenly called first a remnant of the Salerno residence of Arechi II, then “palace of the Norman princes.” The building, which has different archaeological layers, rests partially on the remains of aRoman bath complex, an extension of the nearby bath complex of S. Peter a Corte. Recent restoration work has unearthed elements of masonry, fragments of frescoes and an almost fully intact Roman mosaic, dating from the 1st-2nd centuries AD.

The yellow and gray tufa inlays on the facade suggest an even earlier origin of the palace, presumably referable to the Norman era. The three portals present on Vicolo dei Barbuti and the rooms on Vicolo Adelberga date back to the 13th century, when the palace underwent major renovations, while the second floor was added in the 14th century, during the Angevin period. During the seventeenth century, the ground floor was used as stables, as evidenced by a notarial document dated 1575 that places a ‘lodging house,’ a kind of hospice owned by the cathedral, inside the building.

The floor was used as a stable.

The eastern façade is adorned with fine architectural elements. On the ground floor can be seen three portals surmounted by round arches, on the second floor, five carved mullioned windows and on the second floor, a series of polyphores intertwined with pointed arches supported by small columns.

In 2013, the major structural renovation work conducted by the city government was completed with the goal of transforming the palace into a large cultural pole in the heart of the city’s historic center.