Amalfi

Seaport and resort in Campania, Italy, situated at the foot of Monte Cerrato, on the Gulf of Salerno, 39 km/24 mi southeast of Naples; population (1990) 5,900. For 700 years it was an independent republic. It is an ancient archiepiscopal see (seat of an archbishop) and has a Romanesque cathedral.

In the 10th century Amalfi was one of the main ports of Italy, the first of the medieval maritime republics. It was reduced by Roger II of Sicily in 1131, and was later taken by Pisa, after which it declined rapidly. At the height of its power it had a population of over 50,000. It was finally ruined by a great flood in 1343, but its maritime code of law, the Tabulae Amalphitanae, on display in the Museo Civico, was recognized in the Mediterranean until the second half of the 17th century.

Amalfi's 9th-century cathedral, Duomo Sant'Andrea, has bronze doors cast in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in the 11th century.