Portanova Square and the Rotunda

In Roman times villas and industrial establishments crowded the Portanova district, which today shows, instead, a distinct commercial vocation.

Piazza Portanova is located, in fact, between the’beginning of Via Mercanti and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the prime shopping streets in Salerno. The square takes its name from the presence of a doorway located at the’beginning ofMerchants Street, destroyed by a flood and then rebuilt “nova” to make way for the Castel Terracena.

The gate, which until the 19th century closed the walls of the city’s eastern border, is located on the side facing the sea, between Portanova Square and Flavio Gioia Square. It was made in 1754, replacing an’earlier one, by master Ragozzino. At its top is a grandiose statue of St. Matthew, the patron and protector of the city, by sculptor Francesco Pagano.

Today Piazza Portanova and Piazza Flavio Gioia are separate, but originally they were a single site sloping toward the sea. This explains why Portanova stands in a slightly more elevated position, while the so-called Rotonda occupies a flat clearing further downstream.

Outside the walls, on the eastern side, merchants from all over flocked to a vast flat area, equipped with shacks for the storage and display of goods of all kinds, and took part in the famous Fiera di San Matteo. The latter, in the Middle Ages and modern times, was one of the most prestigious in the whole of southern Italy. Capital punishments were also carried out in the same area, as evidenced by the late 17th-century votive shrine with the mural painting of the so-called Madonna delle Grazie, in front of which the condemned stopped for their last prayer.

Going out of Piazza Flavio Gioia through the gate and walking parallel to Via Roma, one then crosses the characteristic alley, known as Masuccio Salernitano, with the presence of many old stores and old buildings, whose arcades bear pieces of artistic ornamentation, carved in stone.