Folklore
Travelling in the art and culture of Cava de' Tirreni means passing through more than a thousand years' history rich with people, works and monuments: each step along the medioeval city and the several villages will bring the traveller to a pleasant discovery.
Once got in Cava, just left the motorway A3, after only 400 m., you can see a superb granite monument: the Epitaph, built by order of Philip III, king of Spain in 1608.
Going along Corso Mazzini, you arrive in piazza Duomo, where there is the sixteenth century Cathedral and the artistic fountain of the Dolphins, a work of the sculptor Alfonso Balzico, born in Cava in 1825 and very prolific at the court of the Savoy family.
Walking among the two lateral rows of porticoes, which characterize the seventeenth century palaces, you arrive to the Largo Comizi, where you can admire the gorgeous pre-baroque architecture of Saint John and the Church of Purgatory , built by the Artists, and belonging to the homonymous main confraternities founded in 1596. They are the introduction to the fifteenth century "Borgo Scacciaventi", with its old palaces with their main gates made with carved stone, whose courtyards bear visible traces of Aragonese architecture.
The end of the winding Borgo Scacciaventi opens to the airy piazza San Francesco, with the sixteenth century Church of Our Lady of the Elm and the bell-tower, square based, guarding an admirable seventeenth century cloister.
Nearby there lie the church and the convent of St. Francis and the Convent of Saint Mary of the Comfort, with a sixteenth century cloister.
But the most important monument in Cava de' Tirreni is the Holy Trinity Abbey, a national monument, a summing place of history, culture and artistical works.
This section of the site will show you only some of the most interesting places of our town: we warmly advice you to come and visit it in order to appreciate the right proportion of its beauty.
