Amalfi

Fifty-seven steps leading to the most famous and visited monument

The beautiful and majestic Cathedral of Amalfi summarises, in the variety of styles and inspirations, the mediterranean vocation, which has made a small town great in history, squeezed between the sea and the rugged rocks of the coast. In that area, well visible from the sea, an Early Christian basilica rose from the 6th century on whose ruins, three centuries later, at the beginning of the advent of the Republic, the new cathedral of Amalfi was built, dedicated to Our Lady of Assumption (Madonna Assunta), first patron saint of the city, and to the Saints Cosmas and Damian, with three naves and in Romanesque style. A little more than a century later, in 987, Amalfi, rich and powerful, by decision of Duke Manson I, started the construction of another cathedral, dedicated to the new patron saint, Saint Andrew the apostle. The two neighbouring churches were united and a six-naved Romanesque temple was created. Embellished in 1060 by a valuable bronze door made in Constantinople by the will of the Amalfi merchant Pantaleone de Comite Maurone. In 1266, the great church changed to five naves, when one of the three of the oldest edifice was sacrificed for the creation of the cloister of Paradise (Chiostro del Paradiso), another architectonic contribution to the complex of the cathedral, where in the Thirteenth century elements of the new Arab-Norman style started appearing, clearly visible in the twisted columns of the transept. And on the famous and unique two coloured facade, where the Moorish patterns with other Neo-gothic are the result of a nineteenth century restoration which, after a collapse, led to an elimination of the addition, especially the Baroque ones, in order to recover the original version. The tympanum mosaic is of great impact, representing the Triumph of Christ, of Domenico Morelli. Although in the rest of the building, there were many changes during different eras, until the decisive Baroque transformation of the seventeenth century, which had covered some of the original characteristics.

It was after those interventions that the definitive separation happened between the cathedral of Saint Andrew and the pre existing one, which took the name of Basilica of the Crucifix with a wooden Crucifix from the fourteenth century standing out on the apse.

The marble covering, the altars, the ceiling and the ceiling coffers date back to the Baroque transformation of the Dome. On the pre-conciliar main altar, there is a copy of the local author of Crucifixion of Saint Andrew the apostle of Mattia Preti. In one of the two chapels, there is the wooden sculpture of the Apparition of Saint Michel to Saint Fedele. On the ceiling, the Stories of Saint Andrew are painted with gold decorations. The reliquary statue of the patron saint is kept in the left aisle, while the statue carried in the procession is in the sacristy. And in the chapel of the Reconciliation, there is the reliquary of Saint Andrew’s head.

On the 8th of May 1208, a solemn ceremony welcomed the remains of the apotle in the Cathedral of Amalfi, and were then brought back to the East by Cardinal Pietro Capuano, of noble Amalfi origin, who had participated to the crusade as a legate of Pope Innocent III. The Crypt of the cathedral was built on the new grave of the apostle, where the Arrival of the body of Saint Andrew in Amalfi is represented in a fresco by Aniello Falcone of 610, where you can see the Romanesque cathedral ad how it used to be in the thirteenth century.  On the seventeenth century altar, there is a bronze statue of Saint Andrew by Michelangelo Naccerino, with the marble statues of the martyr Lorenzo, of Pietro Bernini, father of the famous Gian Lorenzo, and of Saint Stephane.

Regarding the Basilica of the Crucifix, a restoration of 1931 has recovered the medieval plan to which the pointed arches belong, the double arched-windows and the single lancet windows, with the frescoes from the Angevin period, including a Madonna with child, the saint Cosmas and Damian, the Blessed Gerard Sasso, the founder of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, then of Malta, by an artist from the entourage of Pietro Cavallini. The ancient church houses the Cathedral Museum of Sacred Art, with the Treasure of the Cathedral, made of liturgical objects and sacred vestments of great value, including an Angevin miter and an enameled chalice from the fourteenth century.

The Cloister of Paradise (Chiostro del Paradiso) is connecting the Cathedral with the Basilica of the Crucifix. The cloister is the cemetery of the nobles built between 1266 and 1268, and appears as a quadriporticus with pointed arches interlaced in Arabic-Normand style supported by sixty small columns. In the southern part of the cloister, there are six frescoed noble chapels, in which you can see the Crucifixion attributed to the school of Giotto.

In front of the cloister the Campanile rises, built between 1108 and 1276, in Romanesque style, but with the bell cell of Moorish style.

Like, for exemple the Church of Saint Anthony, in Capo di Croce neighbourhood, which the tradition tells that it was founded as the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, together with the adjoining convent, in 1220 by Saint Francis, who came to Amalfi to honor the tomb of Saint Andrew. Of the Franciscan complex, the beautiful cloister is open to the public only in the afternoon on 13th of June for the feast of Saint Anthony, while the church is temporarily closed for renovations. The church has a single nave and old statues of the Franciscans saints (now transferred to the cathedral), a significant sixteenth-century canvas illustrating the Marriage of Mary and Joseph on the main altar and a much venerated painting of the Madonna of Carmine. Inside, there is also a small crypt, corresponding to the oldest nucleus of the convent, frescoed with scenes of Saint Francis life.

Another sacred edifice worthy of a stop is the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built by the duke Manson I in 986. Among the oldest of the town, it is called “New church” after the creation of an oratory of the Philippine Fathers in the crypt. The statue of Madonna Assunta (Assumption of the Virgin Mary) is much venerated by Amalfi inhabitants.In the nearby Piazza Municipio, where there is a statue of Saint Andrew, the ancient benedictine female convent dedicated to the Holy Trinity (Ss Trinità) houses the Town Hall (Municipio) and, on the first floor, the Civic Museum with objets related to the history of the city and drawings of the mosaic of the Cathedral by Domenico Morelli.