Minerva Garden

In the heart of the Salerno historic centre there is the Minerva Garden, a botanical garden developed on 5 levels, with a panoramic view on the whole city.

The Minerva Garden was built during the 12th century by the Silvatico family, that included Matteo Silvatico, the master that right here in 1300 founded the Giardino dei Semplici (Simple Plants Garden), the pioneering European botanical garden.

Silvatico showed the students of the Salerno Medical School all the plants and their peculiarities, to teach them everything about plants.

Nowadays, the botanical garden is a garden developed on 5 levels, that has been renovated through time even if it kept some elements dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries, such as the long stairs connecting the different terraces overlooking Salerno.

Among the 300 plant species within the giardino della Minerva there are some medicinal herbs, such as the mandrake, that are listed on both the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum and the Opus Pandectarum Medicinae, two books written by Silvatico and used during Middle Ages.

The complex includes a tea room with panoramic view, a shop and a small library.

From the Salerno train station, walk along Corso Vittorio Emanuele and via Mercanti, then turn right onto via Duomo and proceed along via Tasso. After 300 metres turn left onto via Porta di Ronca and proceed along vicolo Ferrante Sanseverino where the Giardino della Minerva is.

Almost every bus leaving from the Salerno train station gets to the Teatro Verdi (Verdi Theatre); from here, just walk towards piazza Matteo Luciani and proceed along via Portacatena, then turn onto via Fusandola that crosses via Ferrante Sanseverino.