Salento

Salento, whose original name was “Sala di Gioi”, stands on a hill overlooking the valley crossed by the river Alento and can be reached via a steep road from which it is possible to experience the primitive beauty of its rural landscape. To the south the town overlooks the Casalvelino plain that ends at the mouth of the river, under the Tower of Velia, between the seaside towns of Ascea and Casalvelino.
The Basilian origin of Salento, is attested by the toponym San Basilio, referable to a rustic fief included in the territory of the ancient “Sala di Gioi”, subjected to the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Pattano. The hamlets, also called “locus” or “vicus”, were built during the Lombard period, in the years in which the coastal strip of the Cilento was populated by different ethnic groups such as the Basilians and the Lombards, another indigenous population. The term Sala, present in an Angevin document of 1272, should derive from the Germanic lexicon which would indicate the agricultural pole around which the economic life of fara rotated. The first news about Sala is found in a document kept at the Abbey of Cava de 'Tirreni and dated 1043 but also appears in other documents, such as the diploma of Errico De Morra, executioner of Federico II, and in the Angevin Registers of 1272. The sources identify the center as "Sala maior" to distinguish it from the "minor", the ancient "Salella", Casale of the land of Gioi which, until 1595, had over a hundred inhabitants.

Salento, whose original name was “Sala di Gioi”, stands on a hill overlooking the valley crossed by the river Alento and can be reached via a steep road from which it is possible to experience the primitive beauty of its rural landscape. To the south the town overlooks the Casalvelino plain that ends at the mouth of the river, under the Tower of Velia, between the seaside towns of Ascea and Casalvelino.
The Basilian origin of Salento, is attested by the toponym San Basilio, referable to a rustic fief included in the territory of the ancient “Sala di Gioi”, subjected to the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Pattano. The hamlets, also called “locus” or “vicus”, were built during the Lombard period, in the years in which the coastal strip of the Cilento was populated by different ethnic groups such as the Basilians and the Lombards, another indigenous population. The term Sala, present in an Angevin document of 1272, should derive from the Germanic lexicon which would indicate the agricultural pole around which the economic life of fara rotated. The first news about Sala is found in a document kept at the Abbey of Cava de 'Tirreni and dated 1043 but also appears in other documents, such as the diploma of Errico De Morra, executioner of Federico II, and in the Angevin Registers of 1272. The sources identify the center as "Sala maior" to distinguish it from the "minor", the ancient "Salella", Casale of the land of Gioi which, until 1595, had over a hundred inhabitants.