Salerno Cathedral - History

History

Begun by Robert Guiscard in 1076 during the episcopate of Alfano I on a pre-existing church (in turn erected over a Roman temple's ruins), the Duomo was consecrated by Pope Gregory VII in 1085.

It was several times modified in the following centuries. In 1688 the architect Ferdinando Sanfelice remodeled in Neapolitan Baroque and Rococo Architecture the interior of the Duomo. Finally, a restoration in the 1930s brought it back to an appearance similar to the original one. Historically the Duomo is remembered as the initial symbol of the Italian Renaissance, because inside there it is the tomb of Pope Gregory VII, the Pope of Canossa who started the rejection from Italy of the German domination of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Duomo was damaged during the Operation Avalanche, when the Allies landed in Salerno in September 1943, during World War II.

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