The door of Ravello's cathedral is of bronze, cast in 1179 by Barisano da Trani, and it is one of the few medieval doors of its kind left in Italy: fifty-four panels with saints, knights and scenes of the passion, every one different. It was paid for by a local merchant, because in the middle ages Ravello traded with the East and was rich, far richer than its silent square suggests today.
What to see
Inside, the piece that counts is the ambo, that is the pulpit from which the gospel was read: a marble chest covered with mosaic, held up by six twisted columns resting on lions. Nicola di Bartolomeo da Foggia made it for the Rufolo family, and on its side is the bust of a woman, Sigilgaita Rufolo, crowned, her hair gathered up: a real portrait, in a thirteenth-century church.
In a chapel is kept the phial with the blood of saint Pantaleon, which by tradition liquefies every year on the twenty-seventh of July. Under the church is the museum, with the marbles, the sculptures and the material of the cathedral gathered in one place.
Visiting
The cathedral is on Ravello's main square, where the bus and the road from Amalfi arrive; entry to the church is free, while the museum in the crypt has a ticket. Half an hour. On festival days the square is crowded in the evening.
Our editors' tip
Go out onto the steps in front and sit a moment: Ravello's square is one of the few places on this coast where you do not hear cars, because the road ends here. Then go back in and look at the bust of Sigilgaita close up: she is a woman of eight hundred years ago, with an expression that is not a saint's.