| Nuceria was founded in 600 B.C. by Etruscan colonists where today lies Nocera Superiore. It rapidly developed, welcoming other populations; the old inhabitants of the Agro region, the Protoitalic Sarrasti and the Greeks.
The numerous and rich necropolis and the use of their proper alphabet, certified by brief inscriptions, lay testament to its development. It became Samnite in the V century and was the centre of a powerful federation which comprehended Pompei, Ercolano, Stabia and Sorrento, in that period it assumed the new name of Nuceria Alphaterna.
After a few obscure centuries it rose again around 1000 on the hill of the Park, nearby the fortress built by the Lombard princes of Salerno.
In 1400 the city, that had assumed in the meantime the name of Nocera dei Pagani, belonged to the Latro, the Zurlo and, subsequently, in 1521, to the dukes Carrafa.
The latter were eminent patrons and built a huge building within the Market village, with splendid gardens, pulled down in 1750 by Charles III of Bourbon who built the great Caserma (barracks) there.
After the Carrafa, the Castelrodrigo were dukes of Nocera and then the Pio di Savoia, until 1806 when feudalism was abolished by the French government.
It was at that time that Nocera dei Pagani was subdivided into the new communes of Corbara, Pagani, S. Egidio and Nocera S. Matteo. These last ones, after reunification in 1834, gave origin, in 1851, to Nocera Inferiore and Nocera Superiore.
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