Amalfi

Comune di {{{name}}}
Comune
Location of {{{name}}}
Comune di {{{name}}} Location of {{{official_name}}} in Italy Comune di {{{name}}} Comune di {{{name}}} (Campania)
Coordinates: 40°38′N 14°36′E
Country	Italy
Region	Campania
Province	Salerno (SA)
Frazioni	Lone, Pastena, Vettica, Pogerola, Tovere
Area
• Total	5.7 km2 (2.2 sq mi)
Population  (December 31, 2004)
• Total	5,102
Demonym	Amalfitani
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	84011
Dialing code	089
Patron saint	St. Andrew
Saint day	November 30
Website	www.comune.amalfi.sa.it

Amalfi is also a town in the Antioquia Departament in Colombia.

Amalfi is a town and commune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno, 24 miles southeast of Naples. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 meters, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery. The town of Amalfi was the capital of The Maritime Republic of Amalfi, an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200.

History

See also Duchy of Amalfi.

Amalfi is first mentioned in the 6th century CE, and soon acquired importance as a maritime power, trading its grain, salt and slaves from the interior, and even timber, for the gold dinars minted in Egypt and Syria, in order to buy the silks of the Byzantine empire that it resold in the West. Merchants of Amalfi were using gold coins to purchase land in the 9th century, while most of Italy worked in a barter economy. In the 8th and 9th century, when Mediterranean trade revived it shared with Gaeta the Italian trade with the East, while Venice was in its infancy, and in 848 its fleet went to the assistance of Pope Leo IV against the Saracens.

The Amalfi coast.

An independent republic from the seventh century until 1075, it rivalled Pisa and Genoa in its domestic prosperity and maritime importance. It was then an independent republic with a population of some 70,000, reaching an apogee about the turn of the millennium, during the reign of Duke Manso (966–1004). Amalfi, under his line of dukes, remained independent, except for a brief period of Salernitan dependency under Guaimar IV.

In 1073 it fell to the Norman countship of Apulia, but was granted many rights. A prey to the Normans who encamped in the south of Italy, it became one of their principal posts. However, in 1131, it was reduced by King Roger II of Sicily, who had demanded the keys to its citadel and had been refused. The Emperor Lothair, fighting in favour of Pope Innocent II against King Roger of Sicily, who sided with the Antipope Anacletus, took him prisoner in 1133, assisted by forty-six Pisan ships. The city was sacked, and Lothair claimed as part of the booty a copy of the Pandects of Justinian which was found there.

Amalfi was a populous city between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In 1135 and 1137, it was taken by the Pisans, and rapidly declined in importance, though its maritime code, known as the Tavole Amalfitane, was recognized in the Mediterranean until 1570. In 1343 a large part of the lower town was destroyed by a tsunami, and its harbor is now of little importance.

Ecclesiastical history

The Amalfi coast.

The Archdiocese of Amalfi, directly dependent on the Holy See, has its epsicopal see at Amalfi, not far from Naples. The early beginnings of Amalfi are very obscure; it is not known when it was founded, or when Christianity reached it. That it was early is a reasonable conjecture, considering the facilities for communication with the East which the South of Italy possessed.

The first positive indication that Amalfi was a Christian community, however, is supplied by pope Gregory the Great, who wrote in January, 596 to the Subdeacon Antemius, his legate and administrator in Campania, ordering him to constrain within a monastery Primenus, Bishop of Amalfi, because he did not remain in his diocese, but roamed about (Reg., V, xiv; cf. Jaffé, RR.PP., 1403). Amalfi was founded by Primenus in A.D. 596; the regular list of bishops began in 829; it was raised to an archbishopric by pope John XV in 987. In 1206, after the completion of the cathedral of St. Andrew, the body of the Apostle of that name, patron saint of Amalfi, was brought there from Constantinople by Pietro, cardinal of Capua, an Amalfian.

The archbishopric had in the early 20th century about 36,000 inhabitants, 54 parishes and 279 secular priests.

In medieval culture Amalfi vindicated a worthy place for herself, especially by flourishing schools of law and mathematics. Flavio Gioia, who made the first mariner's compasses known to Europe, is said to be a native of Amalfi. But Gioia was not the inventor of the compass, which was invented in the East and brought to Europe by the Arabs. In honour of Charles II, a Capetian king then ruling Naples, Gioia put a fleur-de-lis instead of an N, to indicate the north.

Main sights

A view of Amalfi.

Amalfi.

Amalfi occupied a high position in medieval architecture; its cathedral of Sant' Andrea, of the eleventh century, the campanile, the convent of the Capuccini, founded by Cardinal Capuanor, richly represent the artistic movement prevailing in Southern Italy at the time of the Normans, with its tendency to blend the Byzantine style with the forms and sharp lines of the northern architecture.

Burial place of Saint Andrew

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Saint Andrew's relics were brought from Constantinople to Amalfi in Campania, Italy, by the Amalfitan Pietro, cardinal of Capua, in 1206 after the completion of the town's cathedral. The cathedral, dedicated to St Andrew (as is the town itself), contains a tomb in its crypt that it maintains still holds a portion of the remains of the body of the apostle.

Today

Amalfi is the main town of the coast on which it is located, named Costiera Amalfitana, and is today an important tourist destination together with other towns on the same coast, such as Positano, Ravello, and others. Amalfi is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The Amalfi coast is famed for its production of Limoncello liqueur and home-made paper used throughout Italy for wedding invitations.

Sources and external links

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) [1]
• Amalfi Hotels
• Amalfi Webcam
• Amalfi Webcam and Weather Station
• Amalfi and its Cathedral
• Amalfi Map
• ItalianVisits.com