Light blue route (by car) |
Time: 4 h difficulty: mediatime |
> Via G. Capone > Via Taiani > SS 163 località Echie
This route is about 10km, so it advisable to use a car...
This installation had its origin at the end of the X century and is the work of the Hermit Pietro who chose the large cave as his hermitage. Later the nephew of the Holy man, still a boy came to join him: they lived by making come baskets which they sold on the market of Amalfi.
With time they had other proselytes, and built the first chapel and then others until they had a proper Marian centre, named "S.Maria de Olearia", because of the olive groves that covered the slopes down to the sea, or maybe because of the olive press that was in the vicinity. After the death of Pietro, the first abbot was Tauro and in 1088, the Pope gave the monastery into the keeping of The Abbey of SS.Trinità of Cava De' Tirreni, and it became a bridge in the introduction of Latin into the Byzantine church of the South.
Later amplified until it assumed the actual structure of three chapels, one built on the top of another, the lowest level entirely in the rock is the most ancient, where Pietro lived, it later became the crypt. The environment is dominated by a large fresco of the "Madonna orante tra i SS.Paolo e Giorgio".
The second building, much larger has two naves with a large column at the centre, it held the function of a church , open for worship. Even if not all is in a good state of preservation, there are interesting frescoes carried out between the VII and the XI centuries mainly attributed to Leone Amalfitano, a Benedictine monk from Montecassino of the XI century. Small steps lead to the last chapel, frescoed with "La vita di S.Nicola di Bari": Interesting to note the signatures of devout pilgrims who through the centuries have visited the site...
Let's continue...
After a few kilometres just after the bus-stop we take the outside lane, almost rolling down the winding road that ends in the village... A handful of little white houses between the olive trees, their arches almost hidden by the fat leaves of the fichi d'India... As if rudely awakened from a pleasant dream; Erchie is jealous of her silence, the lapping of waves, the song of the grass hopper, a dream that lasts all day... of peace and memories... A Greek colony of the VI century B.C., (supposedly founded by Hercules),even if tiny, the powerful Benedictine Abbey of S.Maria de Irchi in about the X century earned the "jus piscarie"( the right to the tenth part) on the fishing of the whole area , and it dominated Cetara, Suverato, Fonti and the surrounding hamlets, until 1440 when a violent storm took part of the beach and destroyed the Abbey... Reduced to a fishing village, it is remembered for the large "Tonnara", the market of tuna and swordfish...
At the centre of the village, there is S.Maria Assunta with a splendid Portal (Door way) in tufa and stone, and the superb " Madonna col Bambino" of the X-XI centuries over the high altar...
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