The Sedil Dominova is an open loggia on a corner of the old town, with a dome of yellow and green majolica visible from some way off. Walking past, it looks like a decorated kiosk. It is in fact the last survivor of an institution that no longer exists.
What a "sedile" was
In the Kingdom of Naples, the sedili were the assemblies in which the city nobility met to govern: they elected representatives, set taxes and negotiated with central power. Each quarter had its own.
Sorrento had two. The nobles of the western half of the town gathered here from the fourteenth century onwards. The sedili were abolished in the early nineteenth century under the Napoleonic reforms, and their meeting places disappeared almost everywhere.
The Sedil Dominova is the only seat of an ancient sedile to have survived anywhere in the region. It is not a minor monument: it is the only one of its kind.
What you see
- The sixteenth-century majolica dome, in yellow and green, from the workshop of the Chiaiese, the Neapolitan tile-makers responsible for half the majolica floors in Campania.
- The eighteenth-century frescoes on the inner walls, from Carlo Amalfi's workshop.
- The arches open on two sides, which let you see straight through the loggia from the street.
Since 1871 the building has been the home of the Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso, one of the oldest mutual aid societies still active in Italy. Which means the interior is not a museum and has no visiting hours: you look at it from outside, from under the arches.
Getting there from the B&B
Ten minutes on foot. From Piazza Tasso take via San Cesareo, the narrow pedestrian street of the old workshops, as far as the junction with via Giuliani: the Sedile is right there, on the corner.
It is the best route through the old town, and it takes you past the marquetry and limoncello shops on the way.
When to go
In the evening. During the day via San Cesareo is a river of people and the Sedile shows badly, with the crowd flowing under its arches.
After dinner the street empties, the wrought-iron lamps come on and the majolica dome takes a completely different light. It is also the only moment when you can photograph it without twenty people in front.
Our advice
This is a five-minute stop, no more: fold it into an evening walk through the old town, between dinner and ice cream, rather than treating it as a destination.
And look up. Ninety per cent of the people who walk past never notice the dome, because in Sorrento you walk looking at the shop windows.
Sedil Dominova