The Guiscardo siege Salerno, conquest to the brother-in-law Gisulfo and the spear in its most beautiful period.
Salerno was governed by the Lombard princes for four centuries, now the most barbaric among the barbarians – as they were defined – were refined and were the heirs of Roman culture. Earning had extended its domain to much of the South and had laid the foundations of the “Opulenta Salernum”.
The son Gisulph II He had succeeded, after a hand in which the Prince had been murdered.
But Gisulph was not at the height of his father, and in the midday they were now affirming newcomers, the terrible and valiant Normans. Among these,Roberto said the Guiscardo, that is the ardent, formidable warrior and skillful politician. With the reluctance of Gisulfo, the sisterSichelgashe was married to Roberto, who had already a Norman wife, who was repudiated. So the new power joined the Lombard nobles, but the conflicts instead of assopirsi increased.
The ambitions and military capabilities of Guiscardo were boundless: he fought, always victorious, with the Byzantines in Apulia, sent his brother to Sicily to expel the Arabs, he also came to invade the Byzantine Empire by siege the same Byzantium.
Salerno could not stay out of his mires, driven in this also by his wife. It was so that the city was besieged, with Gisulph who locked himself in the walls, despite the attempts of his sister who asked him to surrender. The long siege was interrupted by an internal treason, which brought the army into the city, and Gisulph retired to the unpretentious castle, until he was persuaded to surrender and, in exchange for his life, he was expatriated and fled to Rome.
Salerno therefore became capital of the Norman domain, and Roberto built the new palace, known asCastel Terracena,
he built the beautifulCathedral dedicated to San Matteo, whose precious relics were preserved in the city for over a century.
With theAbate AlfanoThe Medical School was relaunched, which reached its maximum splendor, the city became a very important place of traffic, and also hosted Pope Gregory VII who died here and was buried. It seemed the beginning of a new era in which Salerno, the capital of the whole Mezzogiorno. But Robert died, and the Normans conquered Sicily and established a kingdom that will last eight hundred years.
The capital will become Palermo and Salerno will begin a constant decline.