Guardia Lombardi (/'gwardia lom'bardi/), known as La Uàrdia (/la'wardja/) in the Irpinian dialect, is a small town and comune in the Province of Avellino in Campania, Italy.

[3] The town was first settled by the Lombards in the late sixth century as a defensive outpost, giving rise to its name.

Its neighboring municipalities are Andretta, Bisaccia, Carife, Frigento, Morra De Sanctis, Rocca San Felice, Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, and Vallata.

[5] From the bell tower of the town's mother church and from Monte Cerreto, a few meters from the central Piazza Vittoria, it is possible to see four neighboring regions (Basilicata, Campania, Molise, and Apulia) and ten provinces (Avellino, Benevento, Caserta, Salerno, Campobasso, Isernia, Bari, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Foggia, and Potenza), as well as the Adriatic Sea on clear days.

Based on studies of the distances traveled in the Tabula Peutingeriana and the Antonine Itinerary on the Via Appia Antica, Guardia could, in fact, be the ancient Samnite city of Romulea, described by Titus Livius in Ab Urbe Condita (book 10, chapter 17).

According to Livy's history, Romulea was an opulent city that was conquered and sacked in 293 BC by the Roman consul Publius Decius Mus or, according to another academic source, by Volunnio, and was never rebuilt.

[19] Despite this, the most likely theory is that the ancient city of Romulea coincided with the nearby town of Bisaccia,[20] but the existence in the ancient texts of a mansio called Sub Romula, a small settlement outside Romulea on the edge of the Via Appia, suggests the existence of a population in the Guardiese frazione of Taverne di Guardia.

Salmon (based on archeological excavations) and Werner Johannowsky, suggest that Romulea was located in present-day Carife.

Guardia became a center of importance due to its strategic position, as the town both borders Saracen land and is on the Via Appia Antica that connects Rome with Brindisi.

Part of Langobardia Minor, the gastaldate included Guardia and was designed to protect Benevento by repelling any armies approaching from the East.

[5] It is believed that this castle was incorporated into a palazzo built in the seventeenth century, which is now owned by the Forgione and Santoli families.

The Normans, led by Robert Guiscard, conquered the entire Gastaldate of Conza between 1076 and 1079 as part of the larger conquest of Southern Italy.

This meant that the castle of Guardia became the population center around which houses were built, permitting the spread of small, peasant properties.

The Normans generally did not alter the pre-existing Lombard districts and allowed the feudal lords who pledged their allegiance to keep possession of their fiefdoms.

[30] In 1250, the year of his death, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen resided in the castle of Bisaccia, which he used for falconry trips on Monte Formicoso, on the border of Guardia, which he renamed Montesano.

[31] He was succeeded by his son, Manfred, who, on 30 October 1254, defeated here a papal army in the Battle of Guardia Lombardi,[32] theretofore owned by the Marquis Bertoldo of Hohenburg.

[33] The Angevins, who succeeded the Hohenstaufen, assigned the fiefdom of Guardia to the family member and advisor Milone di Galata.

When the Aragonese seized the Kingdom of Naples in the 15th century, the Guardiese fiefdom passed to the House of Orsini del Balzo.

[34] In the first half of the twentieth century, there was heavy emigration to the United States due to poor economic conditions.

[5] Lombard Street in Baltimore, Maryland was named after the town, as the area was once predominantly inhabited by Italian immigrants.

[41] Guardia Lombardi is home to a municipal library (Italian: Biblioteca Comunale Associata UNLA), which was founded in 1982 by Guardiese historian Salvatore Boniello.

It hosts cultural events, such as Le strade della poesia (English: The streets of poetry) and Paese Mio.

[46] The patron saint of Guardia Lombardi is Pope Leo IX, whose feast day is celebrated on 19 April.

This cheese is made from the milk of the Laticauda breed of sheep, which graze on alfalfa and sainfoin in the mountains of Guardia and Rocca San Felice.

This building was destroyed by an earthquake on 5 December 1456 and was rebuilt upon the initiative of the feudal lord of Guardia, Maria Donata Del Balzo.

It was built around the year 1600 at the behest of Beatrice Della Marra, Duchess of Guardia Lombardi, along with a monastery of Augustinian priests but was seriously damaged by an earthquake on 8 September 1694, which also killed around 300 Guardiesi.

The church building had deteriorated over the years and was restored in 1980 with funds contributed by locals and Guardiesi in the United States.