Agerola
Agerola, protected by mountains, is the ideal place
to spend holiday close to nature. It is at about 600
meters above sea level, inside of a green valley and
it is surrounded on its three sides by mountains
from 900 to 1400 meters high. Towards South, instead,
the valley overlooks Amalfi Coast and the entire
Gulf of Salerno. In this area, still uncontaminated,
there are many luxuriant fields under cultivation,
farmhouses and, going up, chestnut wood and beech
wood. The steep sides, which come down towards the
south coast, are marked by beautiful ravines which
make landscape striking. Ideal place for a relaxing
and healthy holiday, Agerola enjoys of a strategic
position, in fact it is also a starting point for
interesting excursions in its surroundings (Naples,
Pompeii, Vesuvio, Sorrento, Capri, Positano, Amalfi,
Ravello). Agerola is a characteristic mountain
village, it boasts ancient historical origins. The
discovery of amphora, oil lamps, vases and coins
belonging to the first " Cesari " of Rome, tombs,
hovels, underground passages and roads bear out the
theory that this village was already known to the
ancient Romans. The name " Agerola " derives, almost
certainly, from " ager ", Latin word which means
field In fact, its first inhabitants tilled little
fields in the thick forests which covered entirely
the territory, obtaining, in this way, a little area
where the urban center developed over the centuries.
Today the village has still this characteristic with
the territory divided in several little fields
obtained with a particular arrangement, called "
with terrace ", of the mountain slopes. In the
medieval age Agerola, with its five hamlets, was
part of the Amalfi Republic which spread from
Ravello to Positano and, with its woodlands, it
supplied of wood the naval dockyards of the Republic
to build boats. Agerola, which was integral part of
Amalfi, shared also its historical events and among
these the wars against " Saraceni ". In this period
the village had commercial exchanges with Naples,
above all the silk fabrics their product qualifying.
The legend tells that in 1600 the Agerola mountains
were infested by brigands, who, in the thick forests,
found a safe hiding-place. In the following
centuries the village joined the Reign of Naples
following so its events till the Unity of Italy. In
the eighteenth century Agerola had a period very
prosperous because of by the growth of population ,
in fact, for the Bourbon reform improved the health
conditions but above all disappeared almost of all
the banditry. The ideas of the French revolution
were agreed by the Agerola population who lived in
Naples so, Agerola was the first village of the
province to join the democratic constitution of the
Partenopea Republic. After the Restoration, in 1815,
secret societies developed also in Agerola.. An
important man of the last Bourbon period was the
general Avitable who, in 1844, obtained the division
of Agerola from the province of Salerno to unit it
to Naples: The town was, so, separated from the
Amalfi territory keeping attached to it only for the
religious jurisdiction.
