In 1893, hotelier and vineyard owner Pantaleone Caruso [3] and his wife Emilia Cicalese rented five rooms in one of the wings of the 11th-century palace and opened the "Pensione Belvedere".

From the 20th century onwards the hotel had among its guests Virginia Woolf, Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Jackie Kennedy and Laura Vitale.

The lions symbolically guard access to a holy place, and above them are decorative sprays of leaves, animals and birds pecking at bunches of grapes.

During Caruso’s restructuring of the rooms and some of the public areas, shadows were observed underneath the whitewashed walls of the vaults, which indicated that some colour lay beneath.

Salerno’s Cultural Heritage Office produced records which revealed the existence of frescoes dating back to the 18th century, depicting floral motifs, garlands, birds and butterflies which frame Arcadian landscape scenes.

During the excavation, done under the watchful auspices of the Archaeological Department of Salerno, several fragments of artefacts were found which are now at the workshops of the Villa Romana in Minori for dating and classification.

The chapel of Belmond Hotel Caruso has a stone altar in baroque style, painted with a marbled tempera and decorated with a stucco relief.