Maiori and Minori were both called Rheginna, and to avoid confusing them the Romans added Major to one and Minor to the other: today's names come from there. In 842 the towns of the coast between Lettere and Tramonti and between Cetara and Positano, Capri included, joined in a confederation, and each kept its own name and autonomy but was given a precise trade: Maiori got the admiralty, the customs, the salt warehouse and the arsenals. What remains is the castle of San Nicola de Thoro-Plano, the Norman tower called Salicerchio and, just above the town, the abbey of Santa Maria de Olearia, founded in 973 by Benedictines who kept an oil press there: the name comes from the oil.
The rest of the story was written by water. In 1343 a tidal wave devastated the coast, and Petrarch mentions it in a letter to cardinal Giovanni Colonna; five years later the plague arrived, and the decline of the sea trade pushed the town to rebuild itself along the course of the Reginna Major instead of on the shore. Then, in 1954, a flood came down the valley and laid at the bottom of it almost a kilometre of level ground: it is the longest beach on the whole Amalfi Coast, of dark sand of volcanic origin. What is taken today for a gift of the sea is what the mountain left behind on its way down.
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📅 Every year, on the third Sunday of November; also celebrated on 15 August
Maiori celebrates Santa Maria a Mare on the third Sunday of November, in the collegiate church dedicated to her; the same patron is also celebrated on 15 August.
📅 Every year, on 15 August; also celebrated on the third Sunday of November
Maiori celebrates Santa Maria a Mare on 15 August, in the collegiate church dedicated to her; the same patron is also celebrated on the third Sunday of November.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Maiori, but an easy day trip away.
