MINORI

He had chosen a place of rare beauty along the Coast of the Sirens:

on the sea, in a quiet valley, covered by a dense vegetation rich of game and a stream, the Reghinna Minor, nearby.

He had his villa built there, facing south, with an open sea view in order to be able to admire it even from the inside, from a wide viridarium with a large central basin and all around, the rooms where he enjoyed spending his time, often with guests. Like the triclinium nymphaeum, the music room and the essential thermal baths area, fed by the water of the torrent running nearby. All the rooms were decorated with frescoes of bright colours and mosaic floors and there were also statues and stuccoes and water games, which made the garden more pleasant, even the one overlooking the sea. The wide tanks were in the sea, for the breeding of fish to consume at banquets. It was the 1st century AD, between 30 and 60, when a rich and cultured figure of Imperial Rome, maybe a senator, built his large maritime villa in the place from which the stream took its name: Reghinna Minor, which simply became Minori long after, with the Swabian domination. That maritime villa, buried by the materials of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and by mudslides, after having been brought to light since the middle of the last century, is today the main monument of Minori and it is possible to admire the remains, including the frescoed parts. Next to it, the Antiquarium houses the finds rediscovered in the excavation and offers interesting reconstructions of parts of the original environments.

The archaeological area is in the city center and in fact, Reghinna Minor develope on top of the buried structure, whose spaces, accidentally found during construction and considered natural cavities, were used for centuries as cellars, warehouses and even stables in the new hamlet. Not by chance, the area was called “Caves”.

The beginning of the new settlement dates back to the 7th century, after the miraculous discovery of the relics of the Sicilian saint Santa Trofimena on the beach. The founders of the new hamlet in the little bay were groups from the valley of Sarno. From that moment, Reghinna Minor started to develop almost like the other centres of the Coast, with the main village near the sea and accessible from it and other inhabited centers scattered inland, conquering with terraces useful spaces among the rocks of the surrounding hills. Integrated into the Republic of Amalfi and into the Ducky of Amalfi, Reghinna Minor had an arsenal in its coastal part, where there was also the landing place, south of city wall which from the 11th century protected the village, where the bishop’s seat stood, the numerous churches and the noble palaces together with the characteristic three-storey houses, surrounded by cultivated gardens and lemon gardens. A peace disturbed over time by plagues, attacks and raids by the Barbarians and in 1135 by the Pisans. Until a prolonged naval blockade during the War of the Vespers. But already in the 13th century, Reginella, its name at that time, earned the name of civitas.

Gradually the village enriched with today monuments. The basilica of Santa Trofimena was the heart of the city, patron saint of Minori and of the Republic of Amalfi at the beginning, before the arrival of Sant’Andrea in Amalfi. Built in 987 to house the bones of the Saint, the ancient cathedral was demolished in 1747 and rebuilt the following year, In neo-classical style, facing the sea, the façade in the lower part houses four niches with the statues of the Evangelists. Next to it, there is the neo-classical bell tower with a quadrangular plan. The interior of the church, with a Latin cross and three naves with pillars covered with marble, is decorated with a profusion of stuccos. You can admire a Crucifixion by Marco Pino da Siena. Under the presbytery, the Baroque crypt houses the relics of the Sicilian Saint. The congregation of the Blessed Sacrament is part of the complex of the new cathedral, built where the ancient one was, and preserves the remains of the apses. On the mail altar there is a sixteenth-century painting of Our Lady of the Rosary with Saints venerated in Minori. It is the seat of the Archconfraternity of which the Flagellants (or "Battenti") are part and animate the solemn rites of Holy Week.

Other “battenti” referred to the ancient church of Santa Lucia, already existing in the 10th century, which became a female monastery from the 13th century. The church of Santa Maria della Sanità dates back to 1625 with a contemporary painting and statue of the Madonna. In the ancient location of Villamena, where the nobles of Ravello stayed, there is the parish of San Gennaro and Giuliano, founded between the 10th and the 11th centuries, in a Romanesque style and with three naves. The sixteenth-century church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is adjacent, with a nave covered by a barrel vault. In the area of Torre, a cluster of houses among the citrus groves, there is the parish of Saint Michael the Archangel, from the 13th century with a small bell tower, and the high bell tower in Arab-Byzantine style, visible even from far away, which is the only thing remaining of the ancient church of Santa Maria Annunziata, from the 13th century, demolished in 1950. In the district of Forcella, the church of San Nicola dates back to the 11th century. There is a statue of the saint, the destination of a pilgrimage deeply felt by the people of Minori, which takes place on 1st of May.

Near the beach, there is the ancient church of San Giovanni a Mare from the 10th century, which since the 11th century was the seat of the so-called black monks. Entered among the assets of the cathedral, it is now a chapel near the Torre del Paradiso. When this latter was finished, in 1595, it was appearing alone on the beach due to its height, higher than the other towers guarding Minori: the Torre dell’Annunziata, bordering Maiori, and the Torre di Calata Ponte. Today, Torre Paradiso is included in a complex of houses which have grown around it. Still along the coast, at the beginning of the garden of the magnificent seafront running along the beach in front of the city, there is the Fontana dei Leoni, with two marble lions from the 11th century or maybe older and a part of a Roman column.

Long and sandy, a rare case on the Amalfi Coast, the beach of Minori, partly free, offers various bathing establishments, and for its easy accessibility, it is ideal also for families.