Its maze of alleys is reminiscent

of the souks of the Levant

by amalficoasting.org

According to the legend,

Amalfi was founded in the 4th
century by Romans coming back
from Constantinople. First they
stopped at Palinuro to found
Melphe (hence they were called
Melphitani) and then later
moved north and founded
Amal (A-Melphes). Most probably, however, Amal was
founded in the 4th century AD
when a new Roman colony in
nearby Lucania came under barbarian attack and its inhabitants
moved to the fertile and wellwatered hilly area around what
later would become Ravello.
The discovery of fragments of
Roman marble proves that the
area has been inhabited since
Roman Imperial times. In 553 it
became part of the Byzantine
Duchy of Naples. In 596 it was a
fortied town that resisted barbarians attacks until 838, when
it was conquered and looted by
Sicardo. After his death the
town, which owed only token al-

legiance to Byzantium, declared

its independence.
Amal was rst ruled by two
prefects, then by judges and nally by a duke, or doge. The
duchy of Amal came to embrace almost the entire north
coast of the Gulf of Salerno up
to Sorrento, from the sea to the
Lattari Mountains. Between the
early 9th and late 11th centuries,
with the sea power of Byzantium in decline, Amal became
a maritime trading power. It had
a near-monopoly of trade in the
lower Mediterranean Sea, selling
Italian products (wood, iron,
weapons, wine, and fruit) in
eastern markets and buying
spices, perfumes, pearls, jewels,
textiles, and carpets to sell in the
west.
A distinctive Arab-Sicilian architecture originated and developed in Amal: the closely
spaced houses, climbing up the
steep hillsides and connected by
a maze of alleys and stairs, are
reminiscent of the souks of the
Levant. In the 11th century, the
Republic reached the pinnacle of

The Duomo of Amalfi

Amal.
The eastern connections also
brought new or improved crafts
to the area: paper processing,
tanning, silkworm cultivation,
the weaving of silk, and polychrome glazed pottery production. Wool was also spun, woven
and exported throughout Italy;
and coral was made into luxury
objects, and pasta production
and cuisine rened.
The decline of the independent Republic came after the 11th
century, mostly due to internal
struggles. The Normans, who

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Amalfi

Amal

its power thanks to trade with

the Middle East.
Amal had its own bases in
Constantinople, Beirut, Syrian
Tripoli, Cyprus and Alexandria
of Egypt, and the Amaltani also
built churches and hospitals in
Jerusalem. For centuries the
maritime laws of the Republic,
the famous Tables of Amal
(preserved in the Museo Municipale, or Town Hall Museum,
were considered the code of
commerce throughout the
Mediterranean. The nautical
compass was also perfected in

AMALFI
1 Piazza Flavio Gioia
2 Arsenale della Repubblica
3 Duomo
4 Chiostro del Paradise
5 Museo Civico
6 Museo della Carta

ATRANI
7 Chiesa di San Salvatore de Birecto
8 Collegiata di Santa Maria

most important monument on

the Amal Coast. The original
faade collapsed in 1861 and was
later rebuilt. The large mosaic in
the tympanum, depicting Christ
enthroned among the evangelists, was also completed in that
period. To the left of the
prospectus, and not aligned with
it, stands the bell tower, which
was started before 1180 and
completed in 1276. On the top of
the Cathedral steps is the
atrium, rebuilt after the collapse
of the faade, but only partly following its original design. The
space is divided in two by
columns. From there, one enters
the Cathedral, the Church of the
Crucix and the ancient cemetery, also known as the Cloister
of Paradise. Originally there
were two churches, both with
three naves. The rst one (the
Church of the Crucix ) is the
old Cathedral, built between 959
and 1004; the second, wider and
with a transept, was built some
time before 1066, when its
bronze doors were cast in Constantinople. In that period, an
early Christian tradition of having two basilicas was common
in the region and both churches
were ociated at the same time.
The bronze doors depicting
Christ, the Virgin Mary and St.
Peter and St. Andrew with silver
inlaid were donated by the

Amal colony in the Holy City.

The cathedral, rebuilt in
Baroque style, has a Latin cross
plan with three naves divided by
pillars covered with inlaid marble that, in some cases, enclose
ancient columns (one example is
in the 7th pillar).
At the entrance of the presbytery, there are two ancient
monolithic columns and two
candlesticks with mosaic decoration dating back to the 13th
century. The altar is modern but
was built with medieval marble.
On the left-hand side, probably
part of the primitive church,
there are two small chapels with
frescoes of the miracles and e-

Duomo

gies of saints, including Gerardo

Sasso of Amal, founder of the
order of Malta. In the center, the
glass cases contain part of the
cathedral treasure: a delicate
embroidery of the Angevin
Mitre (1297) made of gold, gems
and 19,000 pearls; a nely chiseled Chalice in silver-gilt with
enamel, pearls and gems (14 century); a 18th century Chinese
Sedan from Macao; rare pieces
of silver of the Neapolitan
School; and the magnicent
Falca (a wooden part) of a 15th
century Venetian Galley used by
Saracen pirates to attack the city
(tradition says that the pirates
were ship-wrecked by a terrible

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5

landed in the area Amal in 1003

on their way back from the Holy
Land, conquered the city in
1073.
Arguably the most famous
town on the Amal Coast,
Amal is very scenic, with narrow and picturesque streets,
similar to the winding streets of
a medina. Piazza Flavio Gioia
(#1 on the map), in front of the
port, is named after the navigator who perfected the use of the
compass - between the end of
the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th, the Amaltani
were the rst in Europe to rely
on the property of the magnet.
The statue in the center of the
piazza is of the navigator, Flavio
Gioia.
Crossing the square toward
the center of town, at the beginning of via Matteo Camera, two
pointed arches hide the remains
of the Arsenali della Repubblica
(#2), or Arsenal of the Republic
(visits: 9:30am to 12:30am and
4pm-7pm), where large galleys
with 12-16 oars, among the
biggest of the time, were built.
In the center of the Piazza del
Duomo is a fountain dedicated
to the patron saint of Amal, St.
Andrew, but the piazza is dominated by the Duomo di Amalfi
(#3), or Cathedral of Amal, set
high on top of steep, wide steps.
Built in the 9th century, it is the

Crypt of St. Andrews

and chapels built by patrons between the 12th and 14th centuries. At the back, is a small
chapel with a fresco of Christ
Pantacreator and a magnicent
Crucixion from the school of
Giotto (Roberto DOderisio).
In the collection of the Museo
Diocesano (in the Church of the
Crucifix ) there are fragments of
11th century mosaics from the
faade of the cathedral; colorful
13 mosaic panels from two of the
Cathedrals pulpits; two Roman
sarcophagi adorned with bas-reliefs; two ancient columns with
eagles; a 14th century statue of
Justice; a 14th century sarcophagus with the Madonna and
Child and the apostles; arches
decorated with 13th century mosaic and fragments of the 12th
century faade of the Cathedral.
At the end of the right aisle of
the Church of the Crucix is the
entrance to the Crypt of St Andrew. Built in the 13th century
but renovated in 1719, it has two
aisles, with walls covered in marble and stuccoes. During the
Fourth Crusade, Cardinal Pietro
Capuano swiped Andrew's relics
from Constantinople and
brought them to Amal. The
relics arrived on May 8, 1208 and
were placed under the altar of
the crypt, where they remain
today. The relics are held in a silver urn under the central altar.

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7

storm invoked by St. Andrew,

Amals Patron Saint, to protect
the people of Amal). During
the 4th Crusade, Cardinal Pietro
Capuano swiped Andrew's relics
from Constantinople and
brought them to Amal. The
relics arrived on May 8, 1208 and
were placed in the cathedral's
crypt, where they remain today.
Towards the back, near the rst
column on the right, there is a
Madonna with Child 16th century fresco.
The Chiostro del Paradiso
(#4), or Cloister of Paradise,
which is accessed from the left
of the atrium of the Cathedral,
was built in 1266-68 as a cemetery for Amals most illustrious
citizens. It was abandoned in the
early 17th century and restored
in 1908. The structure of entwined arabesque arches rests
on 120 marble columns. On the
left are tombstones and sarcophagi from dierent periods

The Cloister of Paradise

The marble statues of St.

Stephen and St. Lawrence are by
Pietro Bernini.
The Museo Civico (#5), or
Civic Museum, in Piazza Municipio, (visit by appointment
only) houses the "Tabula amalphitana", the code containing
the maritime laws of the Republic of Amal. It consists of 66
chapters, 21 of which are in
Latin. Although this version
dates back probably from the
15th century, the wordings of the
code go back to a much earlier
age, probably late 11th or early
12th century.

Also of interest is the Museo

della Carta (#6), or Museum of
Hand-Made Paper, on via delle
Cartiere, 24.
The ancient tradition of paper
making in Amal dates to
around the year 1000, when the
Amaltani came into contact
with the new product in their
trading with the Arab world.
Charta bambagina, as it was
called, cost less than the traditional parchment, there was a
rapid diusion in legal and commercial circles despite the fact
that in 1230 King Federico II prohibited the use of paper for o-

As its popularity grew in the

15th century, many foreign authors had their works published
in Naples utilizing this precious
product.
The height of production was
reached in the 18th century
when Amal had 14 paper-mills
and the paper-makers had their
own corporation, with a congregation that met in the Church of
the Santo Spirito located in the
present-day Piazza Santo Spirito. Other mills were in Tramonti, Minori and Ravello.
The manufacture of paper
continued for most of the 19th
century and with the Industrial
revolution came some signicant innovations, with new machines that accelerated the
production. Later, disastrous
oods caused the owners to
move their factories to other
places complicating the paper
making activity.
Today, only one paper mill in
Amal still produces this famous
paper.

Atrani
Part of Amal until the 16th
century, Atrani is just a thousand
yards away, toward Vietri. Populated by the most important
noble families of the Amal Republic (the Doges were crowned
and buried here), it is one of the

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9

cial documents insisting that

they continued to use parchment as it was better tted for
long-term conservation.
The bambagina paper was
made from rags that were cut up
and put into stone tubs. The
pieces were pounded into bers
using water-powered wooden
mallets or pestles. The pulp was
then put into vats. At this point
a frame with a thin wire mesh
was placed in the vat and a thin
layer of pulp was spread over the
mesh. The water was drained o
and the pulp was put between
two pads and pressed to eliminate any excess water. The sheet
was then hung to dry.
During the 13th century the
production of paper on the
Amal Coast continued to expand with the gradual transformation of the water mills into
paper mills situated in the Valle
dei Mulini.
After the Council of Trento
(held between 1545 and 1563) ordered all parishes to keep registers of births and deaths, there
was a further increase in use of
paper. Solicitors, churchmen,
universities and oces of the
Kingdom began to use paper for
their deeds. The best quality
paper began to be used at the
Anjou and Aragon courts, in the
Spanish vice-realm and later still
in the Bourbon court.

10

Collegiata di Santa Maria

most picturesque spots on the

Costiera.
Its intricate road system is
made of narrow streets, steps
and overpasses traversing houses,
orchards and gardens and is one
of the best preserved examples
of the of the Amal Coast urban
architecture.
The Chiesa di San Salvatore
de Birecto (#7), where the Doges
were elected and buried, is in
Piazza Umberto I, the center of
the town. The church was founded in 940 and completely transformed in 1810. The portal, with
12th century carved doorposts,
was closed by a bronze door,
which was moved to the Colle-

giata di Santa Maria. The interior

has three naves. Along the right
one, there is a 12th century piece
with two peacocks side by side
with their feathers furled, divided
by a palm tree with a bird nesting.
The Collegiata di Santa Maria
(#8) with a spectacular view of
the Gulf of Salerno, is a monumental complex built in 1274 but
whose use changed several times.
It has a Baroque faade, a majolica
dome and an elegant bell tower.
The church has a bronze door,
similar to that of the Cathedral
of Amal, which was cast in Constantinople.