Chapel of St. Ludwig

The Cappella di San Ludovico is on the ground floor of the Archivio di Stato and has only recently been restored and opened to the public. A single nave, ribbed vaults and ogival arches determine its Gothic imprint. Beautiful frescoes of the starry sky on the cross vaults.

On a arch of typically Gothic workmanship is the fresco depicting St. Louis of Anjou, who renounced the throne (his father was Charles II the lame), entered the Franciscan order and, after becoming a bishop, died in 1296 and was proclaimed a saint in 1317.

The fresco depicts the saint wearing a Franciscan tiara and robe. Of elegant fourteenth-century workmanship, it recalls Provençal painting and has Sienese influences, demonstrating the wealth of influences and contributions that art gathered in Salerno .

The palace that houses the State Archives has a history as a gentleman’s palace (belonging to the della Porta and later Guarna families), and was later confiscated and used as a Royal Hearing Office, a magistracy with judicial, administrative and military powers dating back to the Aragonese period and then became a court, retaining this role with the Bourbons, and then after Unification in the Kingdom of Italy. The Bourbon-era Grand Criminal Court hosted the various trials of Risorgimento patriots, from the 1820 uprisings to the trial of Carlo Pisacane’s comrades in the Sapri expedition.