The Palace St. Augustine, also called the Palace of the Province as a venue of the provincial administration of Salerno, is a major monumental buildings of the historic center and its main facade overlooks Via Roma, with unobstructed views of the promenade Trieste, at the the square CB Cavour.
The building looks like a single structure with the church of St. Augustine, whose entrance is now located on the rear elevation, facing the historic center, and was founded in the fourteenth century as a monastery. In fact, in 1309 the Archbishop Giovanni De Ruggiero gave the Hermits of St. Augustine the soil necessary to build the first nucleus of the Church and the Convent.
In time the monastery was enriched with numerous additions, mainly thanks to donations in money received from notables of Salerno. The first change of use occurred 500 years after the founding in 1807 when, with the Napoleonic laws, the monastery was suppressed. After a substantial renovation, in 1811 was designated as the seat the Intendenza. The main entrance was moved from its original location (on Via Duomo) to make way for the new entrance facing the sea, were demolished the dome and apse of the church and the bell tower was positioned to the right of the entrance to allow the construction of the second floor.
The building is on three levels (a mezzanine floor plus the top two floors) and with four balconies decorated with a triangular tympanum on the entrance. It was finally built a large rectangular square before the palace overlooking the sea. With the entrance into the city, in 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi was nominated Governor of the Province of Salerno Giovanni Martina who established on the first floor his office. During the years following the unification of Italy, the building has suffered several modifications and change of functions, becoming also the seat of the Prefecture, but it is during the Fascist period that there are more substantial changes and are still visible today.
