Area Description: 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 p ... [Read More]

Area Description: 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.