While waiting for Rome to be liberated, eighty years ago the Italian government temporarily placed the capital in Salerno. How did it end? The article explains it to us “Salerno capital” by Gigi di Fiore, taken from the archives of Focus History.
The context. The Battle of Cassino was in its bloodiest phase. It was February 1944 and the Germans had been resisting for a month. The Anglo-Americans, who landed in Salerno on 9 September 1943 and then in Anzio on 22 January 1944, decided to hand over the liberated territories in Southern Italy to the “co-belligerent” government of Marshal Pietro Badoglio. An act of good will, even if that halved Kingdom of Italy remained under the protection of the liberators.
Move. While waiting for Rome, which was only liberated on 4 June, it was decided to move the government to Salerno. After Brindisi, it would become the temporary capital of Italy to be rebuilt. In the official decree, Badoglio wrote that “all the territories of the Peninsula, south of the northern borders of the provinces of Salerno, Potenza and Bari, return to Italian administration“.
For strategic reasons Lampedusa, Pantelleria and Linosa were not included, but Sicily and Sardinia were included. Italy was divided in two and Naples, with its port, was an indispensable logistical base for supplies and the troops employed in Cassino: for this reason the Americans ruled out that it could become the temporary capital. The only realistic hypothesis therefore remained Salerno.
Settled. Government offices, documents and personnel left Brindisi between 3 and 5 February. It was not a hidden escape, like the one on 9 September 1943 from Rome towards the South. This time, everything happened in broad daylight. And with allied blessing. The departing column was made up of 29 freight wagons, which moved from Brindisi, Taranto, Bari and Lecce where, for 5 months, the very small Southern Kingdom had been concentrated. 380 people moved to Salerno. Upon his arrival, on February 10, Badoglio looked out from the balcony of the town hall to thank the large crowd that was applauding and cheering the government below.
Luxury. The first meeting of the Council of Ministers was held on 11 February in the Marble Hall of the City Palace, which became the seat of government. Among the ministers, Giovanni Cuomo from Salerno, a seventy-year-old professor, responsible for national education. And then a Salerno native by adoption: Raffaele Guariglia, Neapolitan by birth, 55 years old with a brilliant career as an ambassador. The villa of Guariglia, in Vietri sul Mare, was one of the accommodations found for King Vittorio Emanuele III and Queen Elena.
The other was Villa Episcopio, owned by the Duke Di Sangro, former bishopric of Ravello. With a wide-brimmed hat on his head, the sovereign, tired and uncomfortable, often went fishing in a boat. The queen played the piano and listened to mass in the nearby convent of Scala. Every day, a box of fruit and vegetables arrived at the villa, a gift from the food commissioner, Alfonso Menna, future mayor of Salerno. Menna will remember: “I often had a bunch of flowers accompany the box for the queen“.
Misery. Most of Salerno’s public buildings were requisitioned by the government. A third of the buildings and houses had also been destroyed by Allied bombing, which had killed more than 400 people. Many were displaced, in Salerno there were only 55 thousand inhabitants left, exhausted by hunger and disease. There was a lack of bread, pasta, milk, medicines and everything was very expensive, given that the black market was going crazy. The newspaper Freedom (one of the four city newspapers) reported: “People are morally poisoned by easy money“. And the newspaper Time of the people added: “Salerno has never been so dirty“.
Tensions. Badoglio settled in the mayor’s office; in the Council Room Cuomo’s ministry, renamed Public Education. And then, in Palazzo Natella the ministries of Agriculture, Public Works and the liaison offices of the ministries of War and Navy; at Palazzo Barone the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at Palazzo di Giustizia the Ministry of Justice and the Cassation. Due to lack of buildings, some offices were located in Naples, others in Vietri, still others divided between Taranto, Bari and Lecce. But the dispersion didn’t help. Badoglio tried to host the new power in the Pius XI regional seminary. But he found opposition from Archbishop Nicola Monterisi, much loved in the city for having remained in his place under the bombs.
There was an immediate clash between Badoglio and Monterisi. The two had a tough conversation. “But are you Italian?“, shouted Badoglio. And the archbishop replied with a thrust: “I don’t let you question that. When the people were left alone and exhausted by the war, I, 76 years old, was at my post to comfort and relieve the people. You fled to Pescara“. The seminary was not requisitioned.
Welcome. And how did the people of Salerno welcome the new rulers? Second The people’s hour: “The people of Salerno today feel all the pride in the task that our city is taking on“.
Many saw in that arrival a hope to overcome hunger and put an end to the war. In fact, from there the Badoglio government faced the first emergencies of a nation on its knees: food rationing, the reactivation of communication routes, but also the reopening of the university in Salerno, closed 83 years earlier. Minister Cuomo took it to heart, and the Magisterium was inaugurated at Palazzo Pinto on 9 March 1944. And 400 future teachers signed up.
Government of national unity. Salerno remained the capital until 15 August 1944. Six months, then the government was transferred to liberated Rome. There were three “Salerno” governments: two led by Badoglio and one by Ivanoe Bonomi. The foundations of the republican state were laid in Salerno. Political activity, resurrected between Naples and Bari, led to the government of national unity, the second led by Pietro Badoglio. It was the “Salerno turning point”, which postponed the institutional choice between republic and monarchy until the end of the war. The king did not abdicate, but his son Umberto II would become lieutenant of the kingdom in Rome.
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