Alfonso Menna

Alfonso Menna was born in Domicella in the province of Avellino in 1890 and graduated as municipal secretary. He was hired at the municipality of Salerno as deputy section secretary where he took service in the general secretary’s office, then reached the pinnacle of his career with the title of first class general secretary. To this day still vivid in people’s memories was his civic engagement in the 1954 Salerno flood that saw Menna himself as first responder, so much so that in 1958 he earned the decoration of Grand Officer Ordine al Merito of the Italian Republic. He was a militant member of the Christian Democratic Party and accepted in 1956 the proposal to run for Salerno’s city council in the called elections. Although he was unable to participate in the campaign due to a serious injury, arriving in Salerno only a few days before the vote, it took very little for him to overturn all predictions: although he was 23rd on the list, he was the first elected, against Congressman Carmine De Martino.
In 1968 he was awarded the Gold Medal of Civil Merit because he “placed his exceptional abilities as an administrator and organizer at the service of the community, promoting and strengthening, with fruitful continuity, every initiative aimed at the process of renewal of the Mezzogiorno and the social and economic development of the city of Salerno.”
With Menna, the “new” Salerno was born: he built the much-discussed commercial port and the Umberto I orphanage, of which he was president, redesigned the Promenade and Piazza della Concordia, enhancing the public green spaces and hills, and recovered the Castle known as Arechi Castle and Fort La Carnale. He revolutionized the city by making it dynamic and productive, a continuous and always open construction site, so much so that it was nicknamed the “Turin of the South.” It was also a period of building speculation, however, which inflicted some wounds on the development that are still unhealed.
His name is also linked to the history of Battipaglia, as he worked for the founding of the municipality, which he administered until 1931.