The city of Sorrento

The City of Sorrento

The origin and name of Sorrento are lost between myth and historical reality. There is certainly a connection with the myth of the sirens, so widely believed around the gulf of Naples ever since ancient times. The sirens were mythical beings, half woman and half bird, whose singing caused sailors to run their vessels aground, on the rocks.

Ulysses managed to defeat them by plugging his crewmen's ears with wax and having himself bound to the main mast of the ship. Although it is not certain who founded Sorrento, it is highly probable that it had already been inhabited in the l1th century, and constituted an important trading point for the Greeks and Etruscans. Under Osca domination, it developed into a proper town and continued to be so up to the Roman period, when it became the favourite residence of the Roman nobility, who enjoyed the mild climate, beautiful landscapes and its strategic position for communications. Villas later began to appear on top of the most panoramic and prominent points of the coast, followed by acqeducts and cisterns, the remains of which may still be seen today. At that time, the town already possessed an urban grid system divided into insulae consisting of eight cardines(crossroads) and five decumanes (main road axes).

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Sorrento managed to maintain her independence even though she became subject to Byzantium. She fell victim to Longobard invasions and then became a dukedom, stretching from Punta Campanella to the river Sarno. This was a prosperous period for agriculture and maritime trade. In 1133 Sorrento was conquered by the Normans and, in this way remained bound to the kingdom of Naples, yet her autonomy was left intact while its aristocracy was allowed to keep its hold on the surrounding casali ( farm houses), that had often tried to free themselves from the conditions of subordination, to which they had been subjected.

During the Aragonese period, the aristocracy of Sorrento held onto their privileges and there was even a marked increase in the number of sedili (buldings where the local nobles met) they owned in the capital, Naples.

Disaster hit the entire peninsula, from Massa Lubrense to Vico Equense, in June of 15 5 8. The Turks invaded the town, sacked it and deported part of its population to Constantinople as slaves. Many written testimonies of this tragic event in the history of Sorrento remain to this day.

The trauma of this experience speeded up work on fortifying the city walls, which was completed in 1561. Five years hater, in 1567, work began on the construction of thirty-two watchtowers along the coast.. In 1648, a rebellion broke out of the old problem of the casali and outlying villages which took advantage of a general anti-Spanish movement, allied with Giovanni Grillo from Genoa and then besieged Sorrento. These vicissitudes were soon followed by another tragic event, the plague. After breaking out in Naples, it spread rapidly throughout the peninsula, causing approximately two thousand deaths.

The Counter-Reformation led to a considerable decline in the artistic and social life of the city, at a time when many convents and monastic orders were founded. During the Bourbon era, the maritime power of Sorrento was considered the best in the south of Italy both for the merit and courage of its sailors who acquired further prestige with their thriving tuna fishing. The brief revolution in 1799 provided the Bourbons with an excuse to ban for good the sedili used by the nobility.

Later the declaration of the unification of Italy was greeted with acclaim in Sorrento. Maritime and trade activities were resumed With fresh fervour old customs duties were abolished and maritime traffic increased. A shipbuilding consortium was formed with the neighbouring towns of Meta Piano and Sant' Agnello.

In addition new communications made great changes to the area with the opening of the Sorrento - Massa Lubrense road the approval for the Sorrento - Naples railway proj ect and the steam-powered tram project to Castellamare di Stabia.

At the same time, tourism began to take shape in the area and never before as in the 19th century, had Sorrento received so many illustrious visitors - Lord Byron, John Keats, Walter Scott Charles Dickens, Wolfgang Goethe, emperors, queens, distinguished scientists and musicians. Here, Wagner met Nietzche, Ibsen wrote Ghosts , and many artists captured the beauty of the Sorrento and Amalfi coastline. In this period, the artcraft of wood inlaying began to establish itself and soon became one of the main activities of the peninsula alongside agriculture especially the export of citrous fruits and walnuts.

During the period between the two world wars, various boroughs in the peninsula were merged into a single municipality. New economic activities saw young hands abandoning work on the land to meet the increasing labour needs of new tourist facilities. Not surprisingly, the tourist industry has now become the mainstay of the economy of Sorrento.