onvent of La Trinita at Ravello.
Atrani, viewed from the sea, is one of the most picturesque towns on the coast. Wedged into a narrow cleft of the rock, and possessing no land for cultivation, the many-coloured houses rise one above the other, and perch upon the crags above. The street is a narrow dark stair winding and burrowing under the houses, until it ends in the footpath ascending the Dragone valley. The shore of Atrani was destroyed with the rest of the coast in 1343, and the road to Amalfi now passes along the face of the precipitous cliff, the foot of which is washed by the waves that closed over the former defences and dockyards of the Republic.'
In the ancient church of S. Salvatore are interred several Doges of Amalfi, and this is by some supposed to have been the scene of their investiture. The bronze doors given by Pantaleone Vivetta date from 1087.
A curious stone represents two peacocks with tails outspread, apparently weeping; between them an olive-tree supports a bird sitting on eight eggs. At the foot of one peacock is a human head with a harpy or siren on either side, and beneath the other two birds are pecking at a hare.
Sacked by the armies of Pisa in 1135 and 1137, Atrani was on the latter occasion depopulated, and became the abode of foreign sailors, mostly from Alexandria, engaged in trading with Amalfi. During the quarrels between Manfred and the Pope, in the thirteenth century, the former sequestrated the revenues of the vacant see of Amalfi, and to punish the Amalfitans for their opposition to him, gave permission to the Saracens, expelled from Sicily, to settle at Atrani. The Atranese are still considered to have Eastern characteristics and to differ from the other inhabitants of the Costiera, and their dialect retains many Arabic words and modes of expression.
The Torre dello Ziro, on the rock that divides Atrani from Amalfi, is a prominent object in the landscape viewed from either side. Erected under the Aragonese rule, the name has arisen from a fancied resemblance to a cylindrical oil vessel.
On the highest point of the same rock is situated the ruined Castle of Pontone, built by the Normans, and garrisoned by royal troops under the Swabian and Angevin kings, but kept in a state of defence by the communes. It passed into the hands of the Orsini, Colonna and Piccolomini factions, until in 1583, when the Amalfitans purchased their freedom from feudal dues, the castle was dismantled. A gate on the eastern side is the only connection with the village of Pontone, an outlying portion of the commune of Scala, where the family de Afflictis or d'Afflitto ranked among the most noted of the Republic. They liked to trace their descent from Placido Romano, a Roman general, who, having seen a stag bearing a crucifix between its horns when he was hunting, was converted to Christianity, and canonised as St. Eustace after being martyred in A.D. 119.
The Palazzo d' Afflitto was built upon a precipitous cliff, overlooking Pontone, thus forming a natural fortress, and within the walls was the magnificent church of St. Eustace, the fame of whose wealth and beauty spread far and wide, whilst its prominent position made it a landmark for mariners. The portico of the church enclosed three doorways, the centre with lions supporting marble pillars. The outer walls were adorned with arabesques of coloured stone and Parian columns, and in the interior along the aisles were tombs of d' Afflitto knights with their ladies that of Matteo d' Afflitto, the founder, being especially ornate. This family afterwards settled at Scala and Ravello, and by them the doorway of the Palazzo d' Afflitto in the latter town, and the lion. columns on the terrace of the Palazzo Rufolo, were brought from St. Eustace.
This magnificent church was recklessly destroyed in the last century, the marbles were sold, and the pulpit and tombs broken to pieces, so that at present nothing remains except the wall of the apse, with its lancet windows, visible the greater part of the way as the traveller ascends the Dragone valley.
This ruthless destru