Between history and culture
An Ancient Terraced Garden in the Heart of Amalfi
Among ancient walls, lemon pergolas and dry-stone terraces, the Amalfi Monumental Garden preserves one of the oldest agricultural stories of the town. It is a place where nature, history and family memory come together, just a few steps above the heart of Amalfi.
The Amalfi Monumental Garden is one of the earliest terraced gardens in Amalfi, dating back to 700 AD.
Built astride the walls of the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, it is located under the Monumental Cemetery and at the aqueduct of San Lorenzo Al Piano. It was here that the system that brought water from Scala to Amalfi arrived, thanks to a complex system carved partly into the rock.
Along with the Bishop’s and Curia Gardens, the Monumental Garden is one of the first vegetable gardens to be subservient to the city’s food needs. It was located outside the wall, relics of which are still preserved. Examples of typical crop terracing from pre-Romanesque times are found here. In the historical documentation found at the turn of 1000 to 1100 AD, the various constructions and reconstructions carried out are reported, including the ingenious rainwater collection system that was essential for cultivation on the terraces. Urban settlements were also found here, also shown in the medieval model preserved in the Ancient Arsenals of the Republic.
After a day spent climbing the terraces, carrying crates and working under the lemon pergolas, a farmer stops for a moment and looks out over the sea. This is the rhythm of Amalfi’s heroic agriculture: hard work, beauty and patience.
The first lemon plants arrived from the Far East in 900 AD at the hands of Amalfi sailors. Their cultivations on terraces, which will indelibly sculpt the mountain profiles of the Amalfi Coast, to the point of becoming an Intangible Heritage of Humanity, are evidence of heroic agriculture.
A story that reaches to this day
The garden has been the subject of meticulous ordinary and extraordinary maintenance works over the past 30 years aimed at preserving and conserving this cultural-rural heritage of our civilization in the best possible way.
At the top there is a water catchment basin (called a fishpond) subservient to the garden for drip irrigation. It is here that we passionately guard and cultivate the last multi-hundred-year-old plants of Limone Sfusato Amalfitano.
The entire farm is cultivated using the traditional method of certified organic farming, with integrated organic pest management.