Capuchin Convent (Convento dei Cappuccini)
Eighty metres above the harbour, the old Capuchin convent watches Amalfi the way a lighthouse watches the sea — from just far enough away to see all of it. Osbert Sitwell once wrote that you have not really seen Amalfi until you have seen it from this terrace, and the view across the rooftops and out to the Tyrrhenian still makes that case without any help.
Today the convent operates as the Anantara Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel, which means the 13th-century cloister, the arched colonnades and the flowering terraces are no longer freely open. You enter as a guest or as someone who has booked a table at the restaurant — but the architecture, and that terrace, remain.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who manage to eat at the Dei Cappuccini restaurant tend to arrive early and linger on the terrace before their table is called. The walk up from the town centre takes about fifteen minutes — slightly longer than you expect — so build that in. Book the restaurant well ahead; walk-ins are rarely accommodated.
The story behind Capuchin Convent (Convento dei Cappuccini)
The site traces back to 1212, when a monastery-hermitage was founded near a grotto in the rocky outcroppings above the town. By 1583 the Cappuccini friars had taken it over, and architect Matteo Vitale rebuilt and reorganised the complex — adding individual cells, a refectory and a kitchen, and positioning the cloister unusually in front of the church entrance because the cliff left no other room. The single-nave church received its current Late Baroque character through interventions around 1840, including a marble altar and a majolica tile floor.
The 19th century brought repeated changes of purpose. In 1866 the town council converted the convent into a Nautical Institute. Then Gregorio Vozzi's sons, Andrea and Alfredo, took on the property in 1882 and realised their father's earlier ambition of a proper hotel. A landslide in 1899 prompted a new aisle; another followed in 1939. The American writer Francis Marion Crawford set his 1895 novel *Adam Johnstone's Son* here, drawn — as most visitors still are — by the position above the sea.
Good to know
Non-guests can access the site only through the hotel restaurant, Dei Cappuccini — reservations are essential and should be made well in advance. The convent is a 15-minute walk from the Duomo and about 350 metres from the harbour. There is no independent admission, no ticketing and no public visiting hours.
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What travellers say about Capuchin Convent (Convento dei Cappuccini)
A loving and caring home where the elderly residents are the center of attention and lovingly cared for.
A beautiful place for those who want to find some peace and Christianity.
Winter camp with snow
Must see
Beautiful
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