Information
Places of interest
From Piazza Duomo you can contemplate the beauty and majesty of the façade of the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Andrew the Apostle. It is an enormous masterpiece, a meticulous and painstaking work of art made of mosaics and gold that is enhanced every day by the light of the sun's rays breaking on the thousands of tesserae, making it shine and making it one of the most striking beauties of the Mediterranean. An extraordinary majesty created by the skilful hands of Venetian craftsmen and artists whose preparatory cartoons are the work of Domenico Morelli. On the tympanum is depicted a scene from the Apocalypse of St John where Christ is shown above as a Byzantine emperor seated on a throne and surrounded by the four Evangelists. Flanking him are the rulers of the earth who pay homage to him by bowing, while below, 12 archiacal niches enclose the figures of the 12 apostles. The 63 steps leading up to the Cathedral are a must to visit the interior: a triumph of Baroque polychromy, marble and stucco will welcome you to one of the most evocative places of worship in southern Italy. Completing the visit are the Cloister of Paradise, the ancient Basilica of the Crucifix with the adjoining Diocesan Museum and the Crypt of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the beating heart of faith and devotion where the remains of Christ's first disciple are preserved.
General notions
"The day of judgement for the people of Amalfi who go to heaven will be a day like any other".
So said the poet Renato Fucini, extolling the Divine Amalfi's enormous beauty and proximity to the lands of paradise. You will be greeted by these verses carved on a 19th-century plaque as soon as you arrive in Amalfi under the living stone of Porta Marina. A few more steps will take you to the nearby Piazza Duomo where the majestic Duomo di Sant'Andrea stands imposingly before your eyes, a marvellous work that bears witness to the Republic's glorious past. Piazza Duomo is the beating heart of the city, a melting pot of millenary cultures, a crossroads of peoples and a land of expert sailors. Amalfi, at the height of its medieval splendour, was inhabited by merchants and sailors intent on setting sail with ships laden with goods destined for the most prestigious cities of the East. Glory and power were marked by the tinkling of the famous Tarì that sanctioned trade and affirmed Amalfi's powerful mercantile economy in the Mediterranean.
Amalfi enjoys the title of the first Maritime Republic along with the cities of Pisa Genoa and Venice and also boasts of having given birth to prominent figures who have made Mediterranean history such as Flavio Gioia, the perfector of the compass whose statue in his memory soars mightily just outside Piazza Duomo. The imposing work stands with his back to the sea, looking proud and attentive as he clasps the compass, his greatest invention, in his hands, pointing his index finger to the north. Even today its figure is veiled in thick mystery, thus becoming one of the city's identifying symbols together with the octagonal cross, the banner of the ancient Maritime Republic of Amalfi and consecrating it as one of the most precious pearls in the world.