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Information

Vietri sul Mareis historically identified with the ancient Marcina, formerly an Etruscan settlement and later Roman.

The precise origin of Marcina is still not well defined even though the most accredited hypothesis considers Marina di Vietri, due to its position in the Valley of the river Bonea at the foot of Mount San Liberatore, its presumed location.

The first printed evidence of the term Marcina goes back to the XV century when the first editions of the Geografia di Starbone printing press began to be diffused in Europe. But the real diffusion of the term among historians took place with the geographer Filippo Cluverio, who wrote in 1642: “Marcinae oppidum illud est, quonunc dicitur vulgo Veteri”.

Moreover, some medieval documents from the “Codex Diplomaticus Cavensis” of the Cava Abbey mention the existence of the ruins of an urban settlement which may represent the origin of the present day Vietri. The document dated 969 A.D. reports: “intus ipsa civitate, qui fuit ipsa cibita de beteri (Vietri) and the 972 A.D. one reports: “de locum de beteri ista est illa parte flubio Bonea iuxta litore maris”.

The area of Vietri, with its Fuenti anchorage, had a safe port, the only one in the area, since the nearby coast of Salerno, with the River Irno estuary, was exposed to billows and strands.

Vietri sul Mare is situated a few kilometres from Salerno and marks the beginning of the Amalfi Coast. Daily trips take to Positano, Sorrento, Ercolano, Paestum, il Vesuvio and, by boat, to the Isles of Capri, Ischia, Procida.

 Monuments and Places of Interest

• The Parrocchiale di San Giovanni Battista, was built in the XVII century in late Neapolitan Renaissance style. It is characterized by a double crowning of the bell tower cusp in painted ceramics; on top of the portal is an oculum, walled in the XX century to contain the image of the patron saint painted on ceramics. Inside, the single aisle, the altars which are decorated with majolica and ceramics, apart from the Major Altar, in marble. Of great interest the paintings which go back to the XVII and XVIII centuries.
• built in the XVII century, its facade is decorated with painted ceramics; the inside was frescoed in the XVIII century.
• Chiesa di S. Margherita di Antiochia,in the Albori suburb.
• Chiesa parrocchiale di Raito.
• Chiesa della Madonna delle Grazie, in the Benincasa suburb.
• Villa Guariglia, in the Raito suburb.
• Le Torri Saraceni e Ottomane della Costa d'Amalfi.
• The Fabbrica di ceramiche Solimene is and example of organic architecture post World War II, realized by Paolo Soleri, inside a vast collection of contemporary ceramics.
• Molina (1564)