Ancient maritime city gives its name to the stretch of the peninsula on which it stands, the Amalfi Coast.
Amalfi to its unique geographical connotation as it offers to tourists enchanted and cumbersome. All beaches, except those located in front of the city, can be reached by sea or through long stairs. In both cases it is an experience where the focal point is nature. The last resort of the town of Amalfi is “la vite”, 4 kilometers from the city center and is probably the most beautiful of all.
Its foundation goes back to the Romans, from the ninth century, the first of the maritime republics, rivaled Pisa, Venice and Genoa for control of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Maritime Code of Amalfi, better known as Tables of Amalfi, had a great influence until the seventeenth century.
Amalfi reached its zenith in the eleventh century, then began a rapid decline: in 1131 it was conquered by the Normans in 1135 and 1137 and sacked by Pisa. In 1343, then, a storm resulting tsunami destroyed much of the city.
The most famous monument of Amalfi Cathedral is certainly the Arab-Sicilian style and currently dedicated to St. Andrew, patron saint of the city. In fact more than you should talk Duomo Cathedral complex, because the existing building is to be overlapping and coaching of several churches of various periods.
The first building dedicated to Christian worship, was an early Christian church dating from the sixth century AD, which, as in many similar cases throughout Italy, probably replaced a temple dedicated to Roman gods. Between the sixth and ninth centuries AD, the first cathedral built on the former Christian, was dedicated to the Blessed Mary of the Assumption, the first patron of Amalfi. The present church dedicated to St. Andrew dates from the ninth century AD, was built alongside the former and communicating with the same, commissioned by the Duke Mansone I; it later additions were made ​​in medieval and baroque (as the Campanile, the 'altar of St. Andrew, with two statues of Bernini, the Cloister of Paradise, erected by bishop Philip Augustariccio and where there was a high-relief sarcophagus representing "the wedding of Peleus and Thetis" on the side surface and "Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf "to a leader, his seal is preserved in the Diocesan Museum in Salerno. the bronze doors of silver with 4 panels depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary, St. Andrew and St. Peter's, made ​​in 1066 in Constantinople, on commission Pantaleone Comite de Maurone, a coffered ceiling covered in gold leaf).
Traditionally, each year a crew of rowers Amalfi part in the Race of the Ancient Maritime Republics, challenging the arms of the cities of Genoa, Pisa and Venice.
Particularly successful in the history of the city, and still remaining alive only two mills on the present and many now in ruins, is the paper industry, linked to the production of valuable paper of Amalfi. In fact the city you can visit the Paper Museum in Amalfi.