the Garden of Minerva 
Il Giardino della Minerva is located in the heart of the old town of Salerno, in an area called the Middle Ages "Plaium montis" halfway to a perfect path develops along the axis of the walled and terraced gardens that rise from the Town Park, around the river Fusandola, to the Castle of Areca. The "viridarium" Silvatico was owned by the family since the twelfth century, then, in first two decades of 1300, the maestro Matthew Silvatico, we established a simple Garden, the forerunner of all future botanical gardens of Europe. Silvatico of opera, entitled Opus pandectarum medicinae, we obtain the first description of this space Giardino.In of extraordinary cultural value, now identified precisely in the Garden of Minerva, some of the plants were cultivated by the principles which were obtained assets used for therapeutic purposes. Matthew Silvatico there also carries a real teaching to show students of the Medical School of the plants with their names and their characteristics (Ostenso Simplicium). The medieval garden, in the course of a recent campaign of archaeological surveys, was found about two meters below the current floor. In 1666 Don Diego's Core 'fe ... free to buy a house building with garden ... the house with small garden was restored and made habitable and accommodated. "Notary Act is obtained also one of the first descriptions of the terrace and the garden:" ... there is a covered loggia part in lamia sailing supported by pillars and the exposed and paved around, with his pieces astrico which enjoys sea and mountains in the neighborhood, with a fountain in the right of it with perennial water ... there is a wall that holds the fountain, but it is shabby and could collapse damaging the lodge is in it ... a door with seven degrees is drawn into the garden, which consists in a floor, two feet of figs, two Cetrangolo and lives that were eight piers pergola above the factory, but this can be seen on the ground because they are rotted timbers that formed the same, other pillars are part of the waterfall and injured party. "is also mentioned in the fishpond and the staircase leading to the second level of the garden. Although there are many other fig trees and a fountain that feeds the tank below. The property, then the mid-seventeenth century, despite its many faults, already showed the appearance that currently characterizes the place. Last owner was Professor Giovanni Capasso, thanks to the interest of the lawyer Nunziante Gaetano, president of Asylum Mendicità, after World War II gave the entire estate to the charitable institution. In November 1991, in Salem, during the symposium titled Thinking the garden, was presented the project to build a botanical garden dedicated to his garden and Silvatico simple. This project was then funded and developed in 2000 by the Municipality (now owner of the property) using the providences of the European program "Urban".
What is now at the end of the restoration work, it is obvious to the visitor is an interesting series of items to be inscribed among the seventeenth and Eighteenth century. Among these, the most distinctive feature is a long staircase, punctuated by a cross-shaped pillars, which support a wooden pergola. The staircase, which connects visually and situates the various levels of the garden is built on the ancient city walls together with a large and privileged view of the sea, the old town and the hills. A complex water distribution system, consisting of pipes, tanks and fountains (one for each terrace), indicate the presence of substantial sources that have allowed, over the centuries, the maintenance of the fields under cultivation. The site also has a special microclimate, favored by the low incidence of the north winds and favorable conditions that still allows the cultivation of crops demanding in terms of moisture and heat.
