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

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2. Amalfi <strong>and</strong> the eastern side<br />

The image of Amalfi is emblematic of the towns eastern side of the sea, which summarizes all the features,<br />

interpreting them in the most noble <strong>and</strong> complete. The view from the sea shows the similarity of their system,<br />

strongly influenced by the size of the valley in which are situated: very close to that outlined by Dragone<br />

Atrani, wide to Maiori, where Reginna exp<strong>and</strong>s increasingly in descending Tramonti [4].<br />

The former capital of the Duchy st<strong>and</strong>s in a majestic setting, surrounded by high jagged peaks: Mount Aureo<br />

east, crowned by the Tower of Ziro <strong>and</strong> ending at the sea in Cape Atrani said, improperly fitted the tower<br />

called "Saracen", to impassable west <strong>and</strong> rugged peaks, steep, which seems to cling to the complex of the<br />

Capuchins, now a hotel. Behind the beach, separated from the mouth of Canneto, stood the village, located<br />

inside the gorge for the full depth of the stream <strong>and</strong> collected on the side slopes, the East dominated by the<br />

long colonnade of cemetery monuments - the largest nineteenth-century architectural creation of the Coast -<br />

culminating in the opposite quarter Vagliendola, who closed the city from this side. The shape of the blocks<br />

is determined mainly by the need to adapt as best as to the orography of the l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> enjoy the most<br />

advantageous exposure. The narrowness of the site generates an aggregate very concentrated - at first<br />

sight, chaotic - in which the volumes are superimposed along the slopes that line the main road, creating<br />

small neighborhoods interspersed with forest <strong>and</strong> terraced by sharp jumps <strong>and</strong> natural. In a well articulated<br />

together play a vital role connections, trust in the way hierarchical connotation. The central axis, which<br />

crosses the city from the ancient north gate to the cathedral, was obtained between the thirteenth <strong>and</strong><br />

fourteenth century with the coverage of the stream, defining the main director of commercial expansion, the<br />

new route roughly parallels that replaced the old, satisfying the lines of lesser slope, running toward the<br />

north, at higher levels. Dark, winding stairs climb up the sides cross the hills, often becoming galleries<br />

underpassing buildings, reaching the highest areas, even reaching to the neighboring centers.<br />

This network, which includes monuments of great importance - on which this is not the place to linger - <strong>and</strong><br />

small buildings, is dotted with Medieval, Baroque, nineteenth <strong>and</strong> early twentieth century <strong>and</strong> even more<br />

qualified by the recent discovery of structures traced back to Classical times.<br />

In the dense urban network remains the original appearance of Amalfi, on which we have settled the next<br />

steps, to this day. Unlike most of the common neighbors, thankfully, modern infrastructure was affected only<br />

on the b<strong>and</strong> immediately behind the coast, leaving almost unchanged the back, though seriously disturbed<br />

by tampering or by altering <strong>and</strong> incongruous growths contemporaries.<br />

Eastern centers reproduce on more or less reduced scale the same structure. Atrani, which follows, enters<br />

the valley of the Dragon, which, extending to the north, separated from Ravello Scala. The agglomeration,<br />

enriched by important artistic <strong>and</strong> architectural emergencies, draws further suggestion by the presence in the<br />

field of higher rock chapels <strong>and</strong> large natural cavities. Unfortunately, it is irreparably altered the sight<br />

overboard with multiple spans of the viaduct on which the carriage passes, erected on the beach, in the first<br />

half of the nineteenth century, to connect the logs of road from Amalfi <strong>and</strong> Minori.<br />

Continuing his journey, the artery bursts in Minori, cutting through the western area <strong>and</strong> proceeding parallel<br />

to the beach, up to the altitude of which st<strong>and</strong>s the tower Mezzacapo ledge that marks the border with<br />

Maiori. The original village stood on slopes, almost perpendicular to the west. Behind the coast lies the<br />

Figg. 2-3: Atrani.<br />

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