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The origins of
Sorrento are not known clearly. According to
the legend, it was founded by Liparus the
son of Ausone, which was son of Odysseus and
Circe, and the first exponent of the Italic
descent of Ausoni. So Sorrento should have
been initially an Italic city, as also told
by the ancient historian Strabo. But the
structure of the old centre of Sorrento and
somearchaeological remains make us think it
was a Greek city or at least it was heavily
influenced by the Greeks. This is confirmed
also by the presence on Punta Campanella
(the extreme point of the peninsula) by a
temple dedicated to Athena.
The old centre of Sorrento shows the usual
Greek and Roman plan, with parallel streets
around the main axes (decumanus and cardo
maximus) of Via San Cesareo and Via Tasso,
running straightly to the cardinal points.
It partially keeps the original plan,
nowadays occupied mainly by souvenir shops
and tourist services, and partially has been
cleared by the construction of the main road
of Corso Italia, done at the end of the 19th
century and which crosses Sorrento from
point to point. Between Corso Italia and Via
San Cesareo there are some of the most
representative buildings in the history of
Sorrento. The Cathedral, seat for the
Archbishop of Sorrento, was restructured
several times but it saved an interesting
Aragonese portal of the 15th century. Nearby
there is the campanile (a dislocated bell
tower), with a medieval structure but
decorated in the 18th century. On the
decuman there is the Sedile Dominova, the
only example of the medieval parliaments by
noblemen (introduced by the Angevins) which
has remained in the whole gulf of Naples,
called either Seggi or Sedili (Seats).
Piazza Tasso on the Corso Italia is the
unavoidable crossroads to reach every place
in Sorrento. But the administrative and
religious centre of Sorrento is Piazza Sant'Antonino:
on the opposite sides of this square there
are the Town Hall, housed inside the Old
Orphanage by the Convent of Santa Maria
delle Grazie (Our Lady of Graces), and the
Basilica of Sant'Antonino: in the crypt it
is kept the reliquary of Sant'Antonino
Abate, the patron saint of the city,
portrayed also by the statue in the middle
of the square.
Not far from Piazza Sant'Antonino, there are
the Church and the Convent of San Francesco,
with the characteristic cloister nowadays
used as scenery for concerts of classical
music during the summer season. The cloister,
with a rectangular plan, has columns and
their capitals carved in tufa rocks and
which form slender double lancet arches in
Gothic Moresque. Its style is not uniform
because of several restoration works done in
different times, but it is very suggestive.
In the vineyards behind the convent, on the
edge of the cliffs, they made the Villa
Comunale (Public Gardens) at the end of the
19th century, with a wonderful view over the
bay in front of Sorrento. It is a small but
graceful open space, pleasantly shady by the
trees and with flowerbeds where they put
some marble busts. The adjacent rooms of the
convent nowadays house the local School of
Arts, who continues the prestigious
tradition of the inlaid wood works done by
the craftsmen of Sorrento. Many other
churches and convents, villas and palaces
are in the centre of Sorrento, but
unfortunately they are not all visitable.
Among them we remember: the home of the poet
Torquato Tasso and the one by his sister
Cornelia; the palaces Veniero, Correale and
Galantario; the churches of San Paolo, Ss.
Annunziata, Madonna del Carmine, Maria's
Servants, of the Addolorata. Finally we have
to mention the museum Correale di Terranova,
where are shown the highest examples of arts
and crafts in Sorrento: inlaid wood work,
embroidery, silks, furnishings. |
