Salerno - Museo Diocesano San Matteo

Salerno (pop. ~ 130.000) is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The site has been one of the most important and strategic ports on the Mediterranean sea, yielding a rich Greco-Roman heritage. It was an independent Lombard principality in the early Middle Ages. The Normans in 1077 made Salerno the capital of their rule in all of southern Italy. In the 16th century, under the Sanseverino family, among the most powerful feudal lords in southern Italy, the city became a center of learning, culture, and the arts.

Salerno has been the seat of an archbishop since 983 and the city's medical school is famous for being the first college or "university" of medieval Europe.
The Diocesan Museum is best known for the "Salerno Ivories". A collection of ivory plaques from around the 11th or 12th century that contain elements of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Islamic art as well as influences from Western Romanesque and Anglo-Saxon art, but there is much more.

The Byzantine crucifix is called "Di Pietro Barliario". It was created at the beginning of the 13th century