Founded in the 5th century as a shelter against the barbarian invasions that marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.
In the 9th century, Ravello was an important town of the maritime republic of Amalfi, a producer of wool that was dyed in
the town, and an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 840 to around 1200. In 1086 it became the seat of
a bishopric, and had some 25,000 inhabitants by the 12th century. It still has many palaces of the mercantile nobility.
It was destroyed in 1137 by the Republic of Pisa, after which it declined, with the population moving to Naples and its surroundings.