Giovanni da Procida

Giovanni da Procida (1210-1298) was one of the greatest collaborators of the Swabian dynasty, working with Frederick II and then with Manfredi, to continue, after the fall of Corradino, the anti-angioin policy, which led him to organize the Sicilian Vespers, and the Aragonese conquest of Sicily.

He was a doctor, according to the tradition of the intellectuals of Salerno, and is linked to Salerno, as well as for the birth and residence, to two great interventions that changed the face of the city.

He expanded the port in what is still known as “Molo Manfredi”, to recall the king who authorized the works done by Giovanni d Procida.

It was then the creator of the Fair of St. Matthew, which for centuries will characterize the city and which became the moment of maximum economic development until the threshold of the contemporary era. The Fair speaks in the seventeenth century Lo Cunto delli Cunti, to witness its fame, and still in the eighteenth century there is some traveller of the Grand Tour who visits the Fair in Salerno.

The event took place for San Matteo and was developed in a vast area from Porta Nova to the slopes of Carmine, with merchants coming from different parts of the world. The Fair housed animals, including horses from all over the Mediterranean area, and in the fixed docks, which covered the whole exhibition area, were hosted merchants from Northern Europe, Africans, as well as the Amalfi, the Genoese, the Venetians, the great traders of the time.

The role of Giovanni da Procida in the Sicilian Vespri is recognized by Giuseppe Verdi who staged it as a character of the homonymous opera.