The Cloister of Paradise
Interlacing pointed arches on paired columns around palms.
Luca Aless โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Cristina Morettini 95 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Pinat1947 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Luciano Tronati โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**A cathedral with a striped, coloured front reached by sixty-two steps from the square โ and an Arab-style cloister of interlacing arches** โ at the heart of Amalfi. โ **The present front is 19th-century** โ a rebuilding after collapse; โ **but it follows the Arab-Norman manner**: **bands of coloured stone**, **gold mosaic at the top**, **and pointed arches**. โ **Its finest feature is the "Cloister of Paradise" (Chiostro del Paradiso)**: a **burial court of 1266** โ **with interlacing pointed arches on slender paired columns** โ **frankly Arab in style** โ **and palms at its centre**. โ **This is no accident**: **Amalfi was a maritime republic trading with Egypt, Syria and Constantinople** โ **and the architecture came back with the ships**. โ **In the crypt lie the relics of Saint Andrew.**
Interlacing pointed arches on paired columns around palms.
62 steps rising from the square to the coloured front.
The burial place of Saint Andrew beneath the cathedral.
Piazza Duomo, 84011 Amalfi, Italy
**Because it was a maritime republic living by trade with the Islamic world โ and the architecture came back with the ships.** โ **What Amalfi was**: **the first of Italy's four maritime republics** (before Venice, Genoa and Pisa), โ **at its height in the 10th and 11th centuries** โ **with a fleet, warehouses and consuls in Mediterranean ports**. โ **Who it traded with**: **Fatimid Egypt (Fustat and Alexandria)**, **Syria**, **Tunisia** and **Constantinople** โ โ **and Amalfitan merchants held quarters and storehouses in Cairo and Constantinople**. โ **What it carried back**: **goods first** โ spices, silk, paper; โ **and then ideas**: **pointed and interlacing arches**, **tile-faced domes**, **geometric ornament**, **and the central courtyard with palms** โ **all visible in this cathedral**. โ **And other things besides**: Amalfi is credited with **introducing the mariner's compass** to Europe (the knowledge having travelled through the Islamic world and China), โ **and with the *Tavole Amalfitane*** โ the oldest maritime law code in the Mediterranean. โ **Then it collapsed**: **Pisa sacked it in 1135**, โ **and a storm in 1343 swallowed part of its harbour**; **and it became a small town**.
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