Terre dei Principi

The second and longest phase of Longobard power in Italy took place in the territories of the Longobard Principalities in the South and developed over the space of three centuries starting from the end of the Kingdom, that is from 774 to 1077, the year of the final Norman conquest in the South of Italy, which marked the end of the long Longobard period.  When Charlemagne defeated Desiderius, the last Longobard king, part of the Northern Longobard aristocracy moved to the Duchies in the South, where they were welcomed with honours. The traumatic historic development inspired or strengthened new ideals in the Prince of Benevento, Arechis II, who built the palace in Salerno (the only noble Longobard building to survive to the present day with its features intact): to represent the entire Longobard nation and give historic continuity to the Kingdom.

The distance between the South of Italy and the places of power of the Franks considerably weakened the possibility of control by Carolingian power, leaving a very wide field of action both to Arechis II and to the later Longobard princes.

From the political and cultural point of view, in the three centuries of their existence the princes intensified, for various reasons, their contacts with the Byzantines and with the emerging Norman and Arab powers that had settled in some areas of Southern Italy. This resulted in a system of notable integration with the Mediterranean social and cultural environment and in relationships which were expressed in the artistic field by the association of forms and styles that enrich the panorama of the places that can be visited and which gave the last phase of Longobard power a role of important opening to the combination of traditions and styles that is defined today as "Mediterranean culture".

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