In the Amalfi hinterland among the ruins of paper mills and ironworks
Duration: 4,5km
Travel time: 4h 00′
Path – Without difficulties.
Approach – From Salerno: crossroads for Ravello and bi-vio for Pontone. From Naples it is also possible to reach Ravello through the Chiunzi Pass (from Angri). From Sorrento to Positano – Amalfi.
Logistics – Parking along the access road to Pontone. Bus from Amalfi.
Refreshment points – Bar and restaurant in Pontone or in Amalfi by turning towards the cathedral square.
After the flourishing trade at the time of the Maritime Republics, and before the advent of the tourist industry, the economy of the Amalfi Coast was based on agriculture and fishing. To these activities in the
time, others, proto-industrial, of transformation were added. Among these was the production of paper which, soon, would supplant the use of the more expensive parchment. This revolution allowed a considerable reduction in the costs for the production of books, placing itself among the factors that accelerated the spread of culture. Testimony of the intense paper production activity is, today, constituted by the ruins of numerous paper mills that exploited the driving force of the watercourse. The valley also preserves the ruins of an ironworks and, as proof of the intense activity it carried out, of a small hydroelectric power station that supplied the necessary energy. From Pontone, cross the parking lot below the town square, then take the stairs leading to the valley floor. After a little more than 200 meters you reach a crossroads where you continue to the right and at the next crossroads, after another 130 meters, you turn left. At the bottom of the staircase you pass through a building and you are in via Leone Comite Orso. Turn right and start climbing up the valley floor that follows the river which in this section is called Canneto and, further upstream, changes its name to Grevone.
If you want, you can make a stop at the Amalfi Paper Museum. Reaching it requires a small detour: after having traveled no more than fifty meters of Via Comite, take the descent on the left and with a few steps you reach the road, almost in front of the museum. After the visit (time required: 30 minutes) we return to via Coite to continue the ascent of the valley. The stretch of road now traveled takes its name from a small chapel dedicated to the Madonna del Rosario; later it becomes via Paradiso. The first paper mills begin to become visible: imposing buildings built astride the river characterized by numerous openings and now reduced to ruins. The “spanditoi” correspond to the slots, the rooms in which considerable ventilation was required to dry the sheets of paper hung out to dry in the air. In the valley floor you can see the Cartiera Lucibello, straddling the stream, the Cartiera Nolli, now wrapped in the grip of the vegetation, and, flanked by the path, the Cartiera Marino and the Cartiera Milano active until the 1960s.
Further on are the remains of the hydroelectric power station and, finally, the dark and sinister ruins of the ancient “ironworks”. In this factory, from which the valley takes its name, since the 14th century iron ore was worked that the Amalfi ships went to load up to the Island of Elba, in Puglia or in Calabria. The factory gave work to the entire district: the workers of Scala were specialized in the production of charcoal, a precious fuel for the forges, the workers of Pogerola, on the opposite side of the valley, provided the manpower.
The activity went on until the beginning of the last century, when, now out of business, the ironworks was abandoned, marking the beginning of the slow and inexorable abandonment of the Valley. This abandonment is not entirely deleterious if one thinks that, once human activities have ended, nature has regained its undisputed sub-dominion. The vegetation of the Valle delle Ferriere, due to the particular microclimate due to the presence of streams and humid sea breezes, was carefully studied as early as 1859 by the famous German naturalist Kari Haekel in 1859. Of particular botanical interest: “are: the Pinguicola Mirtilora (a small carnivorous plant) and a rare species of fern dating back to the Tertiary, and the Woodivardia radicans. From the ruins of the ironworks, a crossroads marks the beginning of the return: turning right, you go up the ridge to a water reservoir, to continue on a gentle slope towards Pontone, gradually recovering the difference in height of the initial stretch of the walk. After the first houses in the hamlet, a staircase climbs to the left; here it is possible another detour to reach the suggestive ruins of the basilica of Sant’Eustachio (included in the walk n. 12). Finally we return to the square of the departure.
