Sapri is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

province of Salerno The province of Salerno () is a province in the Campania region of Italy. It has 1,054,766 inhabitants as of 2025. Geography The largest towns in the province are: Salerno, the capital, which has a population of 131,950; Cava de' Tirreni, Bat ...

in the

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

region of south-western

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is one of the southernmost towns of the region of

Cilento Cilento () is an Italian mountain range (part of the Lucan Apennines), which gives its name to a geographical region of Campania in the central and southern part of the province of Salerno. Is an important tourist area of southern Italy. ...

and its population is 6,783. Port of Sapri

History

The town of Sapri has ancient origins and is considered the heart of the

Gulf of Policastro The Gulf of Policastro is an inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea which bathes the coasts of three provinces: Salerno in Campania, Potenza in Basilicata and Cosenza in Calabria. The western limit of the gulf is the tip of Infreschi in the municipality of C ...

. Its origins can be traced back to the times of

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

, when it was founded by ancient

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

Sybaris Sybaris (; ) was an important ancient Greek city situated on the coast of the Gulf of Taranto in modern Calabria, Italy. The city was founded around 720 BC by Achaeans (tribe), Achaean and Troezenian settlers and the Achaeans also went on ...

, under the name of "

Scidrus Scidrus, also known as Skidros (), was an ancient Greek city of Magna Graecia on the coast of Lucania, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Pyxus ( Buxentum) and Laüs. History It is mentioned by Herodotus (vi. 21), from whom we learn that it was, as ...

" (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: Σκίδρος). During the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, the bay and its hinterland were highly esteemed.

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

referred to it as ''parva gemma maris inferi'' ("a small gem of the southern sea"). To this day, there are remains of Roman buildings near

La Specola The Museum of Zoology and Natural History, best known as La Specola, is an eclectic natural history museum in Florence, central Italy, located next to the Pitti Palace. The name '' Specola'' means observatory, a reference to the astronomical obse ...

, along the road leading to

Vibonati Vibonati ( Cilentan: ''Livunati'') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. Geography Located in southern Cilento, Vibonati is a hilltown nearby the Cilentan Coast, few km far from Sapri, ...

. From 1811 to 1860, Sapri was part of the circondario of Vibonati, which belonged to the District of Sala in the

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by popula ...

. In June–July 1857 the republican revolutionary

Carlo Pisacane Carlo Pisacane, Duke of San Giovanni (1818–1857) was an Italian patriot and one of the first Italian socialist thinkers. He was an early advocate of propaganda by deed, arguing that violence was necessary not only to draw attention to, or gen ...

led the Sapri expedition here. Pisacane and about 300 of his companions were killed in the suppression of the expedition.

Geography

The town is a port on

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (, ; or ) , , , , is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy. Geography The sea is bounded by the islands of C ...

, located in the southern part of

, close to the border with

Basilicata Basilicata (, ; ), also known by its ancient name Lucania (, , ), is an administrative region in Southern Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south. It has two coastlines: a 30-kilometr ...

. The town is 10 km from

Maratea Maratea (; ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of Basilicata, in the province of Potenza. It is the only ''comune'' of the region on the Tyrrhenian coast, and is known as "the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian". Owing to the considerable number of its ch ...

, 8 km from

Policastro Bussentino Policastro Bussentino (or simply Policastro) is an Italian town and hamlet (''frazione'') of the municipality of Santa Marina (of which it is its seat) in the province of Salerno, Campania region. It is a former bishopric, now titular see, and ...

and almost 100 km from

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

Notable people

Angelo Accardi Angelo Accardi (born 1964) is an Italian artist. Biography Born in 1964 in Sapri, Campania, Italy, Accardi moved to Naples to study art at the Art Academy of Naples but did not complete his formal education, opting to establish his own studio in ...

, born in Sapri, Italian artist

Twin towns

Ripatransone Ripatransone is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian region Marche, located about southeast of Ancona and about northeast of Ascoli Piceno. History The hill of Ripatransone (whose name means "rock of Transo ...

, Italy

References

External links