Furore: Discovering Italy’s Most Famous Fjord and the Painted Village

The fleeing Romans, pursued by the barbarians, took refuge in these mountains and founded the first settlements there.

Furore remained, due to its unique topography, an impregnable stronghold even during the era of Saracen raids.

The fjord served as a natural harbour, where thriving trade took place and the ancient paper mills and food mills developed, powered by the waters of the Schiato stream flowing down from the Lattari Mountains. The name Furore derives from the particular fury the sea takes on during stormy days and nights and from the roar of the waves against the cliffs and in the fjord, with terrifying and deafening sounds.

What to visit
Ancient churches
Furore now has four churches: San Giacomo, San Michele, Sant’Elia and Santa Maria Della Pietà, the latter a former confraternity that was among the most important and prestigious in the Diocese.

The Fjord
The Fjord is a deep cleft in the rock, originally formed by a stream that is almost always dry, the Schiato, which plunges steeply down from the edge of the Agerola plateau. The sheer cliffs, the vegetation clinging to the crevices in the rock faces, the clusters of houses tenaciously carved into the ground, the sound of the waves crashing against the rocky inlets of the coast, and the deep colour of the sea have made the fjord a unique natural and man-made spectacle of great beauty.