THE ARECHI CASTLE

The castle is perched atop Monte Bonadies, dominating the city of Salerno below. Although findings of coins confirm human frequentation of the hill as early as the third to second centuries B.C., the first permanent construction dates to the sixth century A.D., during the Greek-Gothic war, when the Greek general Narsetes ordered the construciton of a castrum, or fort. 
Remains of the Byzantine fortification are visible in some sections of the wall in “opera quadrata,” or “squared-off work,” achieved with large blocks of tufa, and in the original layout of the turris maior, or larger tower. 
The Normans modified this tower, but they raised the height of the adjoining wall network, and realized an enlargement to the south with the construction of a portico, of which there remain a few pylons, embedded in the bulwarks built to hold the cannons during the sixteenth century. 
The Angevins brought more significant modifications, adding cisterns and manufacturing zones; they built several turrets, furnished with arrow-slits (narrow vertical apertures through which defenders could shoot arrows), under which rifle-slits were later installed: these are also still visible. 
With the Aragonese, the castle reached its point of maximum development.