Cattedrale di San Matteo

The cathedral of Salerno houses ancient Greek columns, Roman sarcofagi, medieval pulpits, and the body of St. Matthew the Evangelist

Although World War II bombs devastated most of medieval Salerno, the Duomo's lovely 11th-century atrium courtyard was spared. It contains 28 antique columns pilfered from the ancient Greek ruins of Paestum. Behind them are Roman sarcofagi recycled in the Middle Ages as the tombs for local grandees.

The cathedral was founded in 1081 by Hauteville Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard who by then had conquered his way to becoming Duke of Apulia and Calabria (which, at the time, covered pretty much all of southern Italy; the neighboring Dutchy of Naples was confined just the sliver of land around the Bay of Naples itself). Robert was, for good measure, also Duke of Sicily.

An earthquake in 1688 caused most of the cathedral to be rebuilt along baroque lines, though from the older church remain a fabulous pair of inlaid ambones (pulpits) similar to those at Ravello.

Proof that the city of Salerno was once a much bigger deal than it is today: The cathedral crypt, lavishly redeocrated with precious marbles in the 17th century (and restructured in the 1960s), houses the bones of St. Matthew the Evangelist.

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