Amalfi, picturesque town, southern Italy, in Campania Region, near Naples. Beautifully situated on limestone cliffs, it overlooks the Gulf of Salerno. Amalfi is a small fishing port and tourist resort and the seat of an archbishopric. One of the chief points of interest is the cathedral, begun in the 9th century. In the 9th century Amalfi was a powerful maritime republic. Its maritime code, one of the earliest known, was widely recognized around the Mediterranean Basin until well into the 16th century. After the 12th century, when Amalfi was annexed (1131) by King Roger II of Sicily and then sacked (1135 and 1137), by the Pisans, it gradually declined as a commercial and naval power. Population (1996) 5,589.
