Chiostro del Paradiso

Commissioned in 1268 as the burial ground of Amalfi's noble families, this four-sided portico of interlaced pointed arches holds Roman sarcophagi, painted chapels and fragments of the lost medieval facade within the cathedral complex.

Why it matters

The Cloister of Paradise has paired columns and pointed arches that cross and interlace on all four sides in an Arab-Norman pattern. Archbishop Filippo Augustariccio commissioned the space in 1268 as a burial ground for the nobility of the former republic. Tombs remain in the arcades. The cloister also records the reuse of carved Roman sarcophagi in a medieval cemetery and the storage of stones from the first cathedral. It forms part of the monumental complex of Sant'Andrea.

What to notice

The paired columns support arches that spring from different heights and cross one another. Six chapels open off the walkways; one contains a fresco attributed to the Neapolitan school of Giotto. Several sarcophagi are ancient Roman works reused for medieval burials, with pagan figures alongside Christian inscription panels; one sarcophagus dates to the fourteenth century. Near the entrance to the basilica are surviving fragments of the original cathedral facade, relocated when the church was rebuilt.

Context and history

The cloister belongs to the generation after the great rebuilding of the cathedral: in 1268 Archbishop Filippo Augustariccio walled off this ground beside the church to receive the dead of Amalfi's patriciate, at a time when the republic had already fallen under Norman overlordship and its merchant families were converting sea wealth into perpetual memory. The name in use today, Paradise, belongs to that funerary ambition. Over the following centuries the chapels accumulated altars and frescoes, the sarcophagi multiplied as old carved pieces were redeployed, and the portico became the anteroom of the cathedral rather than a separate institution. The name is medieval logic: in the Middle Ages the word paradise indicated precisely a place of burial, so the label the portico still carries describes its founding purpose rather than any promise of views. The cloister was commissioned by Archbishop Filippo Augustariccio between 1266 and 1268. Its interlaced pointed arches are characteristic of Arab-Norman work.