Amalfi · Since 1222
The Cloister
A masterpiece of Moorish architecture
History
Founded by Saint Francis
of Assisi in 1222
It is one of the oldest cloisters in the Amalfi area: a spectacular example of Moorish architecture that takes your breath away with its evocative mystical atmosphere, felt almost eight hundred years after its foundation in 1222 by Saint Francis of Assisi.
"Our lodging was a former monastery: the cloister, of Moorish architecture, now encloses a small attractive garden, adorned with splendid flowers. Our rooms — once cells — all had a view of the blue and gleaming sea…"
"I saw the cathedral and the streets of Amalfi, I slept in an ancient monastery, the Hotel Luna, and I could have stayed for hours on the terrace watching the fishing lights shimmer on the pearlescent sea…"
When Saint Francis of Assisi came to Amalfi, he chose this cliff overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea to found a convent. The building, with its magnificent Moorish-Norman cloister, has remained almost intact over the centuries, preserving within its arches the scent of lemons and the silence of contemplation.
Today the cloister is the heart of Hotel Luna Convento: a hanging garden suspended between sky and sea, where time seems to have stopped at the year of its foundation. Illustrious guests such as Henrik Ibsen, Richard Wagner and Simone de Beauvoir have walked here and found inspiration.
