Archaeology and nature: hyblean cultural landscape and territorial ...

The design of the urban centers of the Amalfi Coast
Maria Archetta RUSSO
Dipartimento di Restauro e costruzione dell’architettura e dell’ambiente, Facoltà di Architettura “L.
Vanvitelli”, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Aversa (CE), Italia
e-mail: mariaarchetta.russo@unina2.it
Abstract
The Amalfi Coast is made up of towns having different organisation, more or less in contact with the sea.
While to the west of Amalfi agglomerations consist of centers located at different altitudes, often on top of
coastal cliffs, the city and the east side are arranged at the mouth of streams, on sandy shores, and take
advantage of the same side of the valleys, with houses on the hillsides, served by flights of steps, sometimes
extremely steep. The main elements are represented by small villages, gathered around a church and
connected by pedestrian streets, almost always stepped in to bridge the existing soil, arranged in terraces.
Centers in the east, the narrowness of the implant site has produced the initial welding sets, resulting in a
compact urban structure, however, in the western and interior areas, the different terrain and the absence of
constraints have allowed the preservation of isolated small centers.
The conservation of this unique environment, recognized World Heritage Site, cannot ignore the preservation
of the ancient urban structure of the Amalfi Coast.
Parole chiave: Amalfi Coast, village, road.
1. Environmental features
The territory of the Amalfi Coast is marked by high, jagged mountain peaks, interspersed with deep valleys in
which flow streams to torrential regime. It overlooks the sea with breathtaking cliffs, here and there
interrupted by short sandy coasts.
Through painstaking work, between X and XIII century, the soil, originally much steeper, was tilled and
terraced, obtaining narrow strips of land, contained by stone walls, which allowed agricultural development.
The work led to the transformation of the environment in a hospitable context, creating at the same time, a
system for the control of irrigation water. A dense network of roads, mainly tiers, was drawn, providing the
overarching framework for urban settlements, in the full merger of the natural landscape with buildings [1].
The same principle of the terraces was adopted for buildings that, resting on a lower level, develop in height,
becoming thicker as that the withdrawal of the slope allows the expansion of the sub-base.
The different villages, of medieval origins roughly contemporary with the aforementioned large territorial
transformation, are placed both on the coast, and inland areas, at different altitudes between them.
Celebrated for their beauty and panoramic views, and especially for the valuable historical and artistic
heritage preserved, they are the result of ingenious adaptations to tectonic conditions often prohibitive and of
maximum use of scarce resources available. Each one is a unique example that, although in different
combinations, modulates a common matrix. Originally a small group, formed around a church and attested
on a road that provides internal communications and, prolonged, as with other centers more or less close.
By examining the different areas it can be seen that, as far as the coastal areas, agglomerations west of
Amalfi - Positano, Praiano, Furore and Conca dei Marini - are located at the top, above the cliffs that plunge
into the sea. Instead, the cities the eastern side - Atrani, Maiori, Minori, Cetara, Vietri - are at the mouth of
streams, beaches and looked forward to using the system the same sides of the valley where the waters
flow. The narrowness of the sites has resulted in the progressive welding of primitive aggregates, giving rise
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