art and history

the medieval villages

Although Scala is home to only 1,500 inhabitants, it encompasses an area of 13 square km, the largest of all the municipalities of the Amalfi Coast. The variety of its landscapes is surprising: from the rocks close to the sea of Atrani and Amalfi, to the purely mountainous landscapes of the hinterland that reach the borders of the province of Naples. The structure of the town, typically medieval, has six decentralized villages, each clustered around a church and distributed along anorth-south axis. In the past, during its glory days, the inhabitedareas formed a continuous body, rich with elegantly decorated mansions. Today, due to historical troubles, Scala is characterized by much sparser buildings and the hamlets more strongly express their individual character and identity.