What to see in Sapri, a town with a mainly tourist vocation and one of the best seaside resorts in Italy, thanks to the quality of the sea and its beaches, to visit La Specola.
Tourist information
The largest town in the Gulf of Policastro, Sapri is located in the province of Salerno, in one of the most suggestive coastal stretches of the Campania region.
The first human settlements in its territory date back to very remote times, even to the Bronze Age, afterwards there was first the domination of the Greeks and then that of the Romans.
Thanks to its enviable position, between the sea and the hills, Sapri has been a popular tourist destination for a long time, just think that Cicero and the Emperor of the East Massimiano Erculio already knew it, who chose it as his summer residence.
The remains of port works, dating back to Roman times, and other archaeological evidence, found in the area, manage to give an idea of the town's illustrious past.
In 1857 the revolutionary Carlo Pisacane landed in Sapri, which promoted the revolt of the South against the Bourbon domination, a detail mentioned in the poetic verses of Luigi Mercantini, a Risorgimento poet and author of "La Spigolatrice di Sapri".
What see
The Specola di Sapri, a 15-meter high tower used as an astronomical observatory, was erected in 1927 by the Bigi Fathers, a religious order founded by San Ludovico da Casoria, which was later integrated into the Santa Croce complex, commissioned by the Knight Giuseppe Cesarino.
It was Friar Candido, passionate about astronomy, who pushed more for the construction of the observatory, entrusting the project to an architect brother.
Conceived by the architect Magaldi, the particular finishing with the fake rustication of the four facades was added with the latest restoration works carried out in 1988.
The six pointed double lancet windows help to lighten the overall view of the facade.
On the second level the windows alternate with two rose windows, eight majolica plates depict some men of science, including Newton, Edison, Copernico, Volta, Maffi, Marconi, Galilei and Denza.
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The interior of the building consists of an entrance and two upper levels, once you pass the ground floor, which is not very interesting from an artistic point of view, you reach the first level, where the gallery of famous faces is completed on the upper frieze, with four rounds that immortalize Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, Saint Anthony of Padua and Father Ludovico da Casoria.
Going up the steps of a spiral staircase, you reach the second level in the hall of the stars, named in this way for the presence of brass stars placed to decorate the ceiling, representing the zodiacal constellations.
