Campagna

Campagna lies in a valley of the Picentini Mountains of the province of Salerno, inland from the Tyrrhenian coast. The town stands about 270 metres above sea level, with defensible slopes, springs and routes toward Salerno and the interior. Oak woods, grain fields and orchards supported a rural population.

Written records begin in the ninth-century Lombard period. The elevated site gained strategic value in medieval contests, while churches and monasteries made Campagna a regional religious center. It remained an episcopal seat for centuries, and its compact core accumulated convents, palaces and public fountains.

The Tenza stream runs through the town and was used to clean streets and cool the center during the annual A Chiena. From 1532 to 1641 the Grimaldi lords of Monaco made Campagna their Italian seat and added noble buildings and an early printing press. Its identity joins mountain defensibility, Church institutions and the water that runs through the streets.