| A
splendid and famous holiday
resort, Sorrento stands on a terrace rising steeply above the sea on one
of the most spectacular points of the Campanian coast. Because of its
enchanting position and mild climate, sheltered by the surrounding hills,
Sorrento has been a favorite resort since Romans times, (Agrippa,
Augustus and Antonius all had villas here) and it became an elite
tourist resort from the eighteenth century, its hotels welcoming such
luminaries as Ibsen, Wagner and Nietzche.
The high position above the sea and the consequent absence of a true sea promenade create its extremely original nature. In fact, the port, the Marina Grande and Marina Piccola, picturesque bays with a beach and the harbour, are reached by steps and narrow alleys, which offer panoramic views of incomparable beauty of the coast, the surrounding hills covered in olive-groves and citrus fruit trees, and the crystal-clear sea. Linked to the enchanting beauty of the place is the tradition whereby the name of Sorrento originates from the mythical mermaids whose soft singing tempted Ulysses and his crew in the Odyssey. The site on which the town stands, probably founded by the Greek colonies, was already inhabited in prehistoric times. The town
is situated at 26Km from the A3 Napoli-Salerno, with exit at the
tollgate of Castellammare di Stabia and proceeding on the national S.S.
145 Sorrentina.  |
|
The only part of the old Greek town
still remaining is the defensive wall located under the road at the Porta
Parsano Nuova (new Parsano Gate) and can be viewed through a grid. Another small ruin of the Greek wall is located at Marina Grande. The Roman town was built over the Greek one following the same urban plain with walls of large isodomic blocks. These walls stood to defend Sorrento through the Middle Ages. Rebuilding began in 1551 and was only completed in 1561 after the tragic Turkish invasion. Location: via Sersale corner with via degli Aranci Historical buildingsSedile Dominova (Dominova Seat)This is the only remaining
testimony in Campania of the old noble seats and dates to the XVth century. It
has a quadrilateral form with two corner arches in piperno (lava) permitting the
view of the interior of the cupola and the end walls with 18th century frescoes.
The pilasters and polystyle arches with their capotals are in archaic style. The
17th century cupola is formed by green and yellow majolica roof-tiles. Fifteenth Century HouseThe only curious examples of
local architecture deriving from the influx of Tuscan experts working in Naples
in the second half of the 1400s are the small building with lodge in Vico
Galantarario, the capitals which can be found in Neapolitan staircase in Via S.
Arcangelo a Baiano and those of the Pontano Chapel with the only variation of
leaf placed inside out. Part of the House of TassoThe Imperial Tramontano Hotel
incorporates two rooms left from the house where Torquato Tasso, author of
Jerusalem Liberated, was born in 1544 House of Cornelia TassoAt number 11 Via S. Nicola is the
Fasulo House, once the Sersale House. Cornelia Tasso, Torquato's sister, lived
here. Her famous brother lived here too for a little period. In the entrance
hall is a vault decorated with stems, military trophies and inscriptions from
1615 in memory of the poet. Correale Palace (XIVth century)The facade of this building
exhibits valuable acute-arched mullioned windows in dark tufo in various shapes
and designs, with small arches and lobed rose-windows. There is a beatiful large
window with an overhanging pointed arch which rests on polystyle piers upheld by
corbers and crowned by Gothic capitals of acanthus leaves; in the keystone of
the arch the coat-of-arms is incised. The portal is characteristically
Neapolitan arch with Durazzesque Catalan patterns and was used from the 1300s
all through the 1400s. Veniero Palace (XIIIth century)Despite the alterations which it
has undergone over the Centuries this building is of exceptional raruty and
worth as it rapresents the late Byzantine and Arab faste uniquelly drafted in
compositive organic continuity. The three large arched windows on each floor are
surrounded by wide fillets in grey and yellow tufo, two narrower fillets, used
ad floor markers, underline the two rows of windows and round tiles, like small
rose-windows with majolica paterae in the centre, alternate at the apertures
with a slightly raised contour at the base of the plaster. The inlaid tufo
decoration develops a succession of lozanges with the exception of the central
window whose frieze follows a zig-zag motif. The Correale House in the Tasso SquareIn the main square, once called
largo of the castle, exactly at the corner where Via Pietà begins, another
Correale Palace is located. The inscription on the portal's marble scroll
ornament bears the date 1768 but it is known that as early as the XVth century a
house belonging to this family stood here and was later totally transformed by
the 17th century reconstruction. Porta Seat (XVIth century)In the corner which Via S.
Cesareo forms with the Tasso square, where the Sorrentine Club is now located,
there once stood a Seat, called Porta because it was originally built near the
city's main gate in the area then called Largo del Castello. After the abolition
of the Seats it was first turned into a prison and then a guard-house for the
urban militia and finally a meeting place for the Sorrentine Club.
|
