|
|
|
|
Ravello
Having sprung up probably in the 6th century, it was
populated, round about the year one thousand, by a group of nobles from
the Maritime Republic of Amalfi who had rebelled against the authority
of the Doge. The rebels made a good choice when choosing the site in
which to built their refuge: Ravello rises in an easily defendable
position.
The city quickly prospered, thanks in particular to
the flourishing wool-spinning mill, known in olden times as the "Celendra",
that on the 23rd of April 1292 was conceded to Bishop Giovanni Allegri
by King Charles Il of Anjou, to provident agriculture and to the intense
trade exchange carried out on the Mediterranean sea routes, especially
with the Arabs and Byzantines. In 1137 Bernardo da Chiaravalle described
the city as "...ancient, well fortified and impregnable, as well as
being opulent it is so beautiful that it can easily be numbered among
the first and most noble cities ...".
|
The history of Ravello was strictly connected with
the glorious and tormented history of the Maritime Republic of Amalfi,
whose lot she followed. Its economic and political decline began in the
Norman period and became dramatic in the course of the seventeenth
century: having lost its prosperous economy, Ravello had only... all the
rest: an incomparable position from the naturalistic point of view and
architectural and artistic marvels built during the centuries of
splendor.
Celebrities in Ravello
In the Spring of 1880 Richard Wagner arrived in
Ravello, accompanied by his stage designer, the painter Joukovsky. At
that time, the great German musician was working on the composition of
Parsifal and it is obvious just how important a role the real
enchantment of the Villa Rufolo played in the creation of the magic
garden of Klingsor.
Evidence of this is Wagner's signed declaration
written in the Villa's visitor's book on the 26th of May, 1880: "The
enchanted garden of Klingsor has been found". Moreover, even the
choreographic inventions of Peer Gynt, by the Norwegian composer Edvard
Grieg, who spent some time at the Hotel Toro, owe much to the woods,
gardens and mysterious caves of Ravello.
|
Ravello - Photo (c)
Meeli Tamm
|
|
|
The musical calling of this place has been confirmed
by the presence, of Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein
and Mstilav Rostropovich. Ravello has also had occasion to host artists
such as the brilliant Spanish artist and ceramist Mirò, the Dutch artist
Mauritius Cornelius Escher and, at the beginning of the 19th century,
the Englishman Turner, engraver and watercolorist and Ruskin, writer.
Beginning with Boccaccio in the 13th century, the literary theme is the
one which most often recurs in drawing up an "honour roll" of Ravello's
illustrious guests.
Ravellian scenes are sketched out in a short story by
Forster, the famous author of Room with a View. Ravello also had the
good fortune to repeatedly play host to other English writers, including
Virginia Woolf, author of To the Lighthouse.
|
|
In Ravello David Herbert Lawrence wrote numerous
chapters of Lady Chatterley's Lover and, André Gide set a part of his
novel The Immoralist.
Among the literary men who have frequented Ravello,
we mustn't forget to mention Paul Valéry and Graham Greene, Tennessee
Williams, Rafael Alberti and Gore Vidal.
Among the statesmen, Einaudi,
Kennedy, Mitterand, Togliatti and De Gasperi frequented Ravello.
Ravello and Boccaccio
Boccaccio describes the Amalfi coast as: "...the most
delightful place in Italy... a coast... covered with little towns...
gardens and fountains... amongst which there is one called Ravello"
The protagonist of one of the loveliest tales of the
"Decameron", Landolfo Rufolo, is from Ravello: of noble birth, he was a
pirate by choice and shipwrecked by fate and finally, through his
cleverness and good luck, the happy owner of an immense treasure...
Courtesy of
www.ravellotime.it
|
|
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
TangoItalia - Food Wine Travel in Italy - Home
|
