Chiostro del Paradiso

The Chiostro del Paradiso ('Cloister of Paradise') was built by Filippo Augustariccio between 1266 and 1268. Cloaked in a paradise atmosphere, Chiostro del Paradiso was used as a graveyard for the noble families of Amalfi in the distant medieval times. Completely eastern elegance of white and thin columns where the lancet arches similar to those in the palaces of the Middle East accentuate all the influence that the Arab world had on Amalfi.

It is a place worth visiting, where the charm of the environment is accentuated by vegetation and numerous sculptures, which make it an open-air museum. It is a Moorish-style cloister featuring 120 columns, 13th-century frescoes, and religious artifacts around a central garden. Art with its beauty will make you feel closer to God here.

How to explore Chiostro del Paradiso?

• In its outdoor museum, you may see Roman and medieval pillars, sarcophagi showing the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, a sarcophagus from the fourteenth century, and pieces of the Duomo's façade.
• Here you can taste the charm of these unmistakable intertwined arches, supported by 120 slender columns, with a strong oriental flavor.
• Various sarcophagi are exhibited along the left gallery of the cloister, a candid peristyle from whose arches roll up inside the green of the small Mediterranean garden. Among these stand out those depicting the Rat of Proserpina and the Union of Mars with Rhea Silvia of the second half of the second century AD. C.
• On the same side, you can admire the marble fragments with mosaic decorations of the ancient honeycombs of the cathedral, commissioned by Archbishop Dionysius (1174-1202) and made by artists active in Amalfi itself.
• Continuing the visit, you can stop for a moment in the center of its north side to take a characteristic frame of the cathedral bell tower (1180-1276). This bell tower is adorned with polychrome majolica in the Moorish style.
• At the bottom are visible the funerary hats of the cloister: the one with the fresco of the Cristo Pantocrator of the second half of the thirteenth century. You can also see the Crucifixion, attributed to Roberto di Oderisio, the main painter of Campania of the mid-thirteenth century.
• Enter the basilica del Crucifix to check out the interesting cycle of frescoes of the fourteenth century. These are attributed to the Cavallini workshop, in which the Dormitio Virginis and hosts of saints and prophets appear.