What to see in Atrani, tourist itinerary of the small medieval village between alleys and stairways, which extends from the cliff to the beach, including the Church of San Salvatore de ’Birecto and the church of Santa Maria Maddalena.
Tourist information
Placed between the sea and the high cliff, Atrani presents itself to the tourist as a place that has its beach enclosed and protected from the storms, where boats still sail during the night for fishing with lampara, thus creating a suggestive scenery on the sea.
It is a very small seaside resort, just think that it extends only for a square km of surface.
Atrani, has a typical medieval structure very well preserved, characterized by narrow alleys, small courtyards, squares and stairways.
The town of Atrani winds its way up the cliff from the sea, with houses built on the rock.
About the origins, historians agree that the valley of the Dragon, at the end of which Atrani is located, has been inhabited since the seventh century BC. C. from the Etruscans, to which later populations originating in Greece were added, as indeed happened in other places on the coast.
For a few centuries, Atrani shared a piece of history with the nearby Maritime Republic of Amalfi, becoming part of the Coastal Confederation as a sister city, even becoming the place where the authorities of the Republic were elected, a ceremony that ended at the Church of San Salvatore in Birecto with the solemn dressing of the doges, to whom the birecto was imposed, or a cap on which the symbols relating to their office were imprinted, in the same place of worship the rite of their burial took place.
In the past Atrani had a greater geographical extension, including Civita and Castiglione, which became after hamlets of Ravello, also it also became a developed production center, in particular paper, pasta to eat and fabrics for clothing and upholstery.
What see
The tourist itinerary of Atrani includes a walk in the typical alleys, which offer truly picturesque viewpoints.
Among the main monuments and places of interest, there is the Church of San Salvatore de ’Birecto, dating back to the tenth century, with a square plan and interior with three naves with barrel vaults.
The current facade is from the Baroque period and includes a clock, a staircase and an atrium.
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The oldest evidence inside is a tombstone, dating back to the fourteenth century and depicting Filippa Napolitano, noble woman of Atrani, and a marble slab of the twelfth century, depicting two peacocks.
The Church of Santa Maria Maddalena has the particularity of being equipped with two transepts of which, one is covered with vaults covered in their external part with majolica, the other, on the contrary, has a flat roof.
Inside you can see the Madonna pastorella, a 1789 sculpture, and The Incredulity of San Tommaso, a sixteenth-century work by the artist Andrea Sabatini.
The facade of the church, with the high lateral bell tower, is famous for being the only example of Rococo present on the Amalfi Coast, also from the terrace of the sacristy it is possible to have a panoramic view of the Gulf of Salerno.
