Arsenale di Amalfi

Arsenale di Amalfi stands in Amalfi, Italy, as a historic maritime arsenal and museum beside the city’s long seafaring tradition. Its vaulted stone halls preserve the spaces where galleys were built and repaired for the ancient Republic of Amalfi.

Known since the early eleventh century, the structure originally had three aisles, but two remain today. A storm on 25 November 1343 and later changes to the city shaped its present form. The museum opened in 2010 with collections from the Museo della Bussola e del Ducato Marinaro di Amalfi. Inside, the Codice Foscariniano presents nautical rules and one of the earliest examples of the 66-chapter Tavole Amalfitane. This maritime code served as common law across the seas until 1570.

Antique instruments, local paintings, medieval tarì coins and regatta costumes fill the exhibitions. The twelve-carat gold coins recall Amalfi’s minting between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. A compass section explores Amalfi’s early sailors and the instrument’s origins in the Arab world. One memorable detail is the value of a commercial sailing ship: 4,000 tarì in the eleventh century.