Description of the attraction
The Valley of the Mills and the Paper Museum is one of the popular attractions of the famous Italian resort of Amalfi. The valley is located on a hill just above the city and has been known as the local papermaking center for several centuries. The inhabitants of Amalfi borrowed this craft from the Arabs, and they, in turn, adopted it from the Chinese. In the 12th century, it was in Amalfi that one of the first factories in Europe for the production of cotton and linen paper appeared - they were converted from pasta factories. True, soon, at the beginning of the 13th century, the Sicilian king Frederick II banned the use of such paper, preferring the more traditional sheepskin parchment to it.
Despite this, production slowly existed and developed, and in the 19th century, more than a dozen paper mills operated along the entire Amalfi Riviera. Only in the middle of the 20th century, due to the flooding that happened, almost all factories were closed and turned into private houses. And in one of them, built in the 15th century, an interesting Paper Museum was opened in 1969. The initiator of the creation of the museum was Nicola Milano, the owner of the factory and the representative of one of the Amalfi families, who have long been involved in the production of paper.
Today, within the walls of the museum, you can see samples of old paper, get acquainted with the process of its production, which took place by hand, and inspect the restored mechanisms that participated in this process. The ground floor houses a small thematic library and an exhibition of photographs and historical documents. Usually the tour lasts about 20 minutes, and after it you can walk around the museum and go down to Amalfi, to the picturesque Piazza Duomo and the bustling Via Genoa.
