VIETRI SUL MARE - AMALFI COAST
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Vietri sul Mare is the first town in the Amalfi Coast we meet coming from Salerno, which is only three kilometers distant from. In the Ancient Age Vietri was an Etruscan town, then it had fallen under the Samnites' domination and finally under the Roman rule. Vietri is famous above all for its ceramics handicraft, that has always been very flourishing. Historical references of the "maiolicari" and their furnaces located around Vietri are numerous: the most ancient written documentation belongs to the XV century, when Vietri was one of the main centers of a larger productive area including also Cava, Nocera and Salerno. The main archaelogical remains of this period have been recovered in the Abbey of the near town of Cava dei Tirreni. As time passed, in the XVI-XVII centuries there has been an evolution inside the productive structure of Vietri, in a nearly industrial manner: high furnaces with three levels, entrusted to St. Anthony's protection, produced thousands of dishes, cups, amphoras, etc. The traditional decorative motifs refer to an archaic style, out of time and space, specialized into decoration's details. Colors used by Vietri craftsmen are the ones by Mediterranean marinas: blu blackgrounds and sky merging with the sea. The most part of the export production was sent to Naples, the capital of the Southern Italy Reign, where were located the richest customers. During the third decade of XX century began a new original phase of Vietri ceramics: a group of International artists (mostly German) settled here, opened their ateliers and carried their style and experience into the local handicraft: Richard Doelker, Irene Kowaliska, Elle Schwarz and others. The main cultural reference common to all those artists was the Expressionist manner, which coming to South and meeting with Mediterranean atmosphere, lost its dramatic strenght and merge itself with local tradition.
Creative synthesis, picturing immediacy, colors purity are the characteristics marking the style of the Vietrese production. The expressive procedure is always the same: colors are approached each other in contrast, without passages or shading. This is the thread joining the different stages of tradition, that has been renewed in style and shapes, but never betrays the quality of production, characterized by bright, massive enamel and by the fast and immediate use of paint-brush. This ancient tradition has been handed on in a highly human way, not damaged by time passing: there are still a lot of workshops where this art is continued with love and passion. However we can't forget that Vietri is also a tourist resort. The centre, overlooked by the Mount San Liberatore, lyes on a terraced hill falling down to the sea. Main monument is the Church of "San Giovanni Battista" (St. John the Baptist), whose shapes belong to the XVIII century with its elegant dome covered with majolica. Underlying the town is the Marina of Vietri, with a large shore provided with many tourist amenities, with a Saracen Tower of XVI century in the middle. Other than Marina, in the territory of Vietri sul Mare, there are other 5 hamlets: Molina, whose name is derived from the mills ("Mulini") working here since the Middle Ages; Albori, a characteristic village hanging on the Eastern side of a pictoresque valley under Mount Falerio; Raito, overlooking the Gulf of Salerno as a balcony, with an elegant Parish Church provided with some precious frescoes by Solimena; Benincasa and Dragonea, surrounded by greenery and woods, base camps for the mountain paths.
At Raito, inside the tower rising in the park of Villa Guinigi, there is the Museum of Ceramics, where are exposed some pieces of Vietri's production, from XVII century up to present days. At Dragonea there are the Caves of San Cesareo, with characteristic rocky shapes created by water erosion; inside on of those caves there are the remains of an ancient chapel. Apart there is the village of Fluenti, on the edge to Cetara. The most important events in Vietri are related to the ceramics tradition: the award "Journey through Ceramics", exhibitions and reviews, organized in collaboration with national and international partners. Inside Villa Gueriglia take palce some summer concerts and a National Piano Contest. Thanks to its features and history, Vietri sul Mare is considered one of the major production centres of artistic and traditional ceramics: its name is a quality mark that is going to be protected also by law against imitations.
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