[8] During a period of Spanish rule the city suffered a crisis which would last until the 18th century, but under Napoleon Salerno became part of the Parthenopean Republic.

The area of what is now Salerno has been continuously settled since pre-historical times, as the discoveries of Neolithic mummy remains documents.

The new city, which gradually lost its military function in favour of its role as a trade centre, was connected to Rome by the Via Popilia, which ran towards Lucania and Reggio Calabria.

Under the Emperor Diocletian, in the late 3rd century AD, Salernum became the administrative centre of the "Lucania and Bruttii" province.

In the following century, during the Gothic Wars, the Goths were defeated by the Byzantines, and the Salerno briefly returned to the control of Constantinople (from 553 to 568), before the Lombards invaded almost the whole peninsula.

Like many coastal cities of southern Italy (Gaeta, Sorrento, Amalfi), Salerno initially remained untouched by the newcomers, falling only in 646.

The Lombard prince ordered the city to be fortified; the Castle on the Bonadies mountain had already been built with walls and towers.

In 839 Salerno declared independence from Benevento, becoming the capital of a flourishing principality stretching out to Capua, northern Calabria and Apulia up to Taranto.

Around the year 1000 prince Guaimar IV annexed Amalfi, Sorrento, Gaeta and the whole duchy of Apulia and Calabria, starting to conceive a future unification of the whole southern Italy under Salerno's arms.

On 13 December 1076, the Norman conqueror Robert Guiscard, who had married Guaimar IV's daughter Sikelgaita, besieged Salerno and defeated his brother-in-law Gisulf.

In this period the royal palace of Castel Terracena and the cathedral were built, and science was boosted as the Schola Medica Salernitana, open to women like Trota of Salerno and Mercuriade also, considered the most ancient medical institution of the European West, reached its maximum splendour with text like Trotula.

He had entrusted Constance to some important Salerno citizens (advised & "ruled" by the archbishop d'Aiello) and after his retreat from invasion in 1191 they had received letters about the events from Nicolò D'Aiello and so betrayed Henry, attacked Constance at Castel Terracena and handed her over to King Tancred of Sicily, making the Empress captive for nearly one year.

From the 14th century onwards, most of the Salerno province became the territory of the Princes of Sanseverino, powerful feudal lords who acted as real owners of the region.

They accumulated enormous political and administrative power and attracted artists and men of letters in their own princely palace.

In the 15th century, the city was the scene of battles between the Angevin and the Aragonese royal houses with whom the local lords took sides alternatingly.

A slow renewal of the city occurred in the 18th century with the end of the Spanish dominion and the construction of many refined houses and churches characterising the main streets of the historical centre.

[12] After the unification of Italy, a slow urban development continued, many suburban areas were enlarged and large public and private buildings were created.

Henry Wellesley, 6th Duke of Wellington, who was killed in action during the fighting, is buried in Salerno War Cemetery.

In those months Salerno was the provisional government seat of the Kingdom of Italy, and the King Vittorio Emanuele III lived in a mansion in its outskirts.

The city is situated at the northwestern end of the plain of the Sele River, at the exact beginning of the Amalfi coast.

[19] A new Maritime Terminal Station, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, was completed in 2016 and was opened for the 2017 cruise season.

This peculiarity gives Salerno special tourist characteristics that are increased by the many local points of tourist interest like the Lungomare Trieste (Trieste Seafront Promenade), the Castello di Arechi (Arechis' Castle), the Duomo (cathedral) and the Museo Didattico della Scuola Medica Salernitana (Educational Museum of the Salernitan Medical School).