Ravello - Campania - Italy - 1000 Places to See Before You Die on Waymarking.com

Ravello was founded in the 5th century as a shelter place against the barbarian invasions which marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.

In the 9th century Ravello was an important town of the maritime Republic of Amalfi.

It was a producer of wool from its surrounding country that was dyed in the town and an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200.

In 1086, at the request of the Italo-Norman count Roger Borsa, who wished to create a counterweight to the powerful Duchy of Amalfi, Pope Victor III made Ravello the seat of a diocese immediately subject to the Holy See, with territory split off from that of the archdiocese of Amalfi. Early on, the bishops of Ravello all came from patrician families of the city, showing the church's municipalized character.

In the 12th century, Ravello had some 25,000 inhabitants, and it retains a number of palazzi of the mercantile nobility, the Rufolo, d'Aflitto, Confalone, and Della Marra.

In 1137, after a first failed attack two years before, the Duchy was destroyed by the Republic of Pisa. After this, a demographic and economic decline set in, and much of its population moved to Naples and its surroundings in the Kingdom of Naples.

In 1944 during WW2, the king of Italy lived in Ravello -at the "Palazzo Priscopio"- while waiting to go back to Rome.

The town has served historically as a destination for artists, musicians, and writers, including Giovanni Boccaccio, Richard Wagner, Edvard Grieg, M. C. Escher, Virginia Woolf, Greta Garbo, Gore Vidal, André Gide, Joan Miró, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Graham Greene, Jacqueline Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein and Sara Teasdale.

Every year in the summer months, the "Ravello Festival" takes place. It began in 1953 in honour of Richard Wagner.

The 1953 film Beat the Devil, directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, and Gina Lollobrigida in her English language debut, was shot in Ravello. An extended scene of Bogart and Jones romancing was filmed on the Terrazza dell'lnfinito at the Villa Cimbrone.

Name of Source Book: 1,000 Places to See Before you Die 2010 edition Page Location in Source Book: 186 Type of Waymark: Town Location of Coordinates: Villa Rufolo Cost of Admission (Parks, Museums, etc.): 0.00 (listed in local currency) List Available Hours, Dates, Season: 24x7 Official Tourism Website: [Web Link]

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