MAIORI
Reghinna Major
was its name in ancient age, and probably it was founded by
Etruscans like its sister Minori.
It knew its period of maximum splendor in the centuries IX,
X and XI when the localities of the Amalfi
Coast were associated under the common flag of the Maritime
Republic of Amalfi.
The fortune ended after 1000 when Maiori
was taken from the Longobard Principality of Salerno
entering subsequently in the orbit of the Norman dominion
in Southern Italy.
In 1135 it endured, like the other cities
of the coast, the pillage by Pisans and began
a period of regression helped also by the event of the plague
of 1348 that decimated great part of the population.
Maiori subsequently lived again in the XV
century thanks to the manifacturing industry of the silk and
the wool and later with the opening of first paper mills (XVI
cent.).
In 1662 it was appointed Royal City by king
Filippo IV knowing one short period of rebirth soon disillusioned
from two tremendous floods of 1735
and 1773 during which Maiori was devastated.
It was in this sad period that the finding in the sea of a
statue of the Virgin induced the inhabitants to the cult of
the famous sacred imagine that became tha symbol of the city.
Passed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1860
Maiori was again devastated by a flood
in 1910 and was an important actress in the disembarkation
of allies in 1943 who here landed on the beach and made of
the city their operating nucleus.
In a more recent age Maiori it was chosen by Roberto
Rossellini as a set for some of its movies among
which we cite Amore and Paisà. Maiori
is from 1960 one of the localities more famous and appreciated
of the Amalfi Coast.
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