Giffoni Valle Piana

This town had a diocese that lasted an instant. On 6 March 1531, in consistory, pope Clement VII raised the Stato di Giffoni to a diocese: he turned the church of the Annunziata into a cathedral and named as first bishop Innico d'Avalos, who was bishop of Aquino. Cardinal Ridolfi, archbishop of Salerno, opposed the decision with such energy that the Holy See had to revoke it. The first bishop of Giffoni never took possession of his see, and the church remained a cathedral without a diocese: it is still on a Latin cross plan with three naves, as it had been rebuilt for the purpose.

The history of this territory begins with a deportation. The Piceni, defeated by the Romans around 268 before Christ and forced to emigrate, founded Picentia in the valley of the Picentino; they later sided with the Carthaginians, and once Hannibal was beaten the Romans destroyed Picentia in 201. They rose again during the Social War of 89, were beaten once more, and this time had to abandon the city, razed for good, and to live in small villages on the surrounding hills. Those villages are today called San Cipriano Picentino, San Mango Piemonte, Montecorvino Rovella, Montecorvino Pugliano, Faiano, Giffoni Sei Casali and Giffoni Valle Piana. About the name of this last one there is argument: some derive it from Junonis Phanum, for a temple of Juno on which the basilica of Santa Maria a Vico was built, some from the Greek foneo, to send out sounds, and some from genus furis, that is «land of knavish and rebellious people». Since 1971 the town has hosted the Giffoni Film Festival, an international film festival for young people.