The Sedil Dominova Via San Cesareo

The Sedil Dominova

The poet Torquato Tasso (1511-1595), the author of “Jerusalem Delivered”, well remembered its origins during his long stay at the court of the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II d’Este .
No concessions emphasis.

Today like yesterday, when you simply say the name of Sorrento, you are assured of having mentioned a place where beauty is superimposed on the beautiful. Here, every year, there are about two and a half million tourists for more than a hundred hotels: those unfamiliar with this city?
Someone said: “Sorrento is a window on the world.” The tradition of hospitality is a rule applied daily not only in facilities, but also in the traditional hospitality extended to visitors. In 800 Sorrento became one of the favorite stops on the Grand Tour for the older people of the nobility and culture of Europe. Poets, novelists, musicians, painters, writers, historians and even photographers and directors have celebrated Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast or Sorrento-have choice for unforgettable stays: Alfonse de Lamartine, Johan Wolfgang Goethe, Henrik Ibsen (who wrote “The house of Ghosts”), George Byron Gordobn, Sybil Fitzgerald, Marion Crawford, Charles Dickens, Helman Melville, Fredrich Nitzche,
The charm of the Sorrento-Amalfi Coast is in the quality of its welcoming atmosphere, that indefinable atmosphere rooted in the characteristics of the territory and the culture of its people.The writer Norman Douglas successfully encapsulates the essence of a trip or a stay in the Sorrento peninsula with wonderful expressions. “No, you really could not blame that would spend a short period of Katarsis, purification and sanitation here, on these fragrant hills of the Sirens, so far away from the call of duty, that duty which has become the Moloch of modern life.” (From “The Land of the Sirens”, ESI, 1972).
At Sorrento tourist fortunes contributed excellent geographical location, ideal for a diverse holiday excursions of artistic, cultural and social. The city is 257 km.da Rome, 48 from Naples, 39 from Herculaneum, Pompeii 28, 47 from Vesuvius, 74 from Caserta. The sea routes allow rapid hikes in the gulfs of Naples and Salerno, to the islands of Capri and Ischia.
It ‘s impossible to tell the story of Sorrento while claiming to contain in a few pages all the events that are not followed since the time of the Greeks and Romans. You can, however, try to make the identity of this city by focusing on aspects of its history and following the thread of certain places to go back to the soul of a civilization.
Interesting in this regard is the journey which, starting from Piazza Tasso named after the great poet, he invites to a walk in Via San Cesareo, one of the oldest streets in the historic center.

The Sedil Dominova Via San Cesareo

Via Cesareo was the beginning of the Decumano Maggiore in Roman times. Today is one of the streets parallel to Corso Italy. On its name exists a hypothesis imaginative, unproven, that leads back to the legendary leader Cesareo Console.
Along this street they were built patrician residences of greater prestige, until the opening of Corso Duomo, the current Corso Italy, moved to the new road, larger and more modern, much of the prestige of the ancient Via San Cesareo.
Here, in the heart of Sorrento, the monumental building of Sedil Dominova (overlooking the well said “Schizzariello” referring to a fountain from which “splashed” all the water) which was the seat of a part of the Sorrento nobility goes in plain sight on the front of the plaque: “Workers Society of Mutual Aid”. The inscription reminds Sorrento and visitors to the city that the building since 1877, after being attended by the city nobility, home to an association founded to guarantee workers the first forms of mutualism, anticipatory of the Social Insurance System and Welfare State.
Among the most significant places to understand and implement the genuine soul of the people of a city, they deserve those where interest would gather his people. And ‘this feature to make it interesting, in Sorrento, a walk in Via San Cesareo up Dominova Sedil: building of great importance not only for the history of the city, but also because it is the sole survivor of the ancient aristocratic of the Campania region, We are having been destroyed those of Naples.
Via San Cesareo is the street of Sorrento seats. When we take this road, starting from Piazza Tasso, there is left the building (profoundly changed today compared to the origins) designated as the first policy meeting for the nobles of the city: the Porta seat.
At Sedil Dominova, built in the fourteenth century, they are linked to important pages in the history of Sorrento: that of his people, that of its people. Its creation was due to the fratricidal struggles between nobles. They remember, in particular, the bloody events of January 1319 in the Mastrogiudice backyard. Many patricians, for old enmities arose due administration of the city, came to arms. Soon to them they joined relatives and servants. To quell the riot, he had to go down among the contenders Bishop Richard: dressed in his vestments, at the top of the cross, the bishop put an end to a battle full of dead and wounded.
After this major event, the patrician families, which until then were all part of the port seat for the administration of the city (with a ruler), they decided that it was necessary to split. The nobles resident in the west of Sorrento erected a monumental building where they can meet separately, which was called Domus Nova and then Dominova. They merged the patrician families Volcano, Mastrogiudice, Sersale, Capable, Nobilione, Molise, Donnorso, Boccia, Jeweler, Martial, Cortese, Teodoro, Carlino, Spasiano.
In 1877, when he founded the Workers’ Association, the Sedile Dominova has become the headquarters of the association for mutual benefit activities for Sorrento workers.
The Porta seat, rebuilt in 1506, has lost over the centuries the ancient characters. Today in its place there is a very different building at the beginning of Corso Italy, where he hosted the Circolo Sorrentino founded in 1874.
The Sedil Dominova, however, it remained essentially unchanged in its fifteenth-century structure: two sides open to the outside large round arches piperno, the archaic capitals. The dome, covered with typical “riggiole” majolica, is of a later period: work carried out in the eighteenth century by the “Rigiolaro Chiajese the city of Naples.”
The external room walls are painted with motifs that come close to the school of the painter Carlo Sorrento Amalfi. The approach is suggested by the similarity of some works of the Sacred Real Council to Castel Capuano in Naples, nel’700 executed by the painter himself, with those of Sedil Dominova. The symbolic architectures, which emerge angels, cherubs and crowns, lead back to the frescoes of Carlo Amalfi. Notable is, in particular, the coat of arms of the city of Sorrento surmounting the entrance to the inner room. The frescoes were executed nel’700 surely, as there is no trace of the 52 ducats paid to ornamental painter Gaetano Petagna for restoration in the inner part of the dome (year 1803).

The Company Workers

The Workers’ Mutual Aid Society of Sorrento, always hosted throughout the history in Sedil Dominova, was founded on July 8, 1877.
In 2002 the association celebrated 125.mo anniversary with various initiatives, including the publication of “A institution or a city. ” The book, in addition to saving from oblivion entity unpublished papers (minutes of meetings of boards of directors and general shareholders’ meetings) was very much appreciated by Sorrento because he showed documents in hand the significant role in the most authentic history of the city : the history of the Sorrento people, the history of the working classes.
An institution, a city. Yes, because from the Workers’ Association events it emerges their constant intertwining with the surrounding reality. The Social archive documents, minutes of general meetings, correspondence and any other correspondence help to find segments of the life and culture of the Sorrento people.
The history of Sorrento is not made only of churches and monuments, myths and legends, natural beauty, breathtaking landscapes, songs and famous visitors. In Sedil Dominova are both in the times in which, starting from 1877, were made concrete decisions about the fate of Sorrento is the time when it was the meeting place for the nobility to administer the city, it has become the headquarters of the workers’ association.
The era of the founding of the Workers’ Association, for example, coincides with the view of the economic reality of the city where, in 1830, began to rise the employment of many workers in the wood inlay industry. The same body structure has always boasted among members, until the Second World War, a considerable number of inlay craftsmen and workers, along with representatives of various arts and crafts: the growing field of oranges and lemons, seamanship activities the first steps of the development of tourism and hotel business. The first Statute of the Workers’ Central Society of Sorrento (original name) admitted the inscription: “Shareholders workers, namely workers, farmers, sailors, boatswains, laborers, artists, and coasting captains, industrianti with warehouses in the streets” . The testimony recover in this document is valuable because it helps today offering the framework of the most common work activities to the 800.

The field of wooden marquetry

At the time of the founding of the Workers’ Association on tourism was in its infancy, was still the pre-eminent economic activity in the Land of the Sirens. The sector in the expansion phase, albeit a juncture between and the other, was that of the inlaid wood.
So much is confirmed by the numerous initiatives that, at the time of its origins, the Workers’ Association started in favor of inlay craftsmen and workers, starting with the School of Drawing, which anticipated the founding, in 1886, of the Royal College of Art (now State Art Institute) in which played a decisive role Francesco Grandi, former partisan and partner.
Documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries attest to the active presence of Sorrento masters in the execution of wooden interiors for choirs of Neapolitan churches and furniture for palaces: this allows to postulate a marginal presence inlay craft, at least as assets passed down from father to son.
Only top 800, however, may be found in Sorrento traces of a real cabinet making and marquetry industry.
In 1825 the craftsman Antonio Damora was called by Francis I of Bourbon to work on the restoration of the furniture in the Royal Palace. Damora perfected not only his knowledge of stipetteria, but the same practice of intarsia and contour with straight cutting in two colors, without reliefs, through the help of only some sign filled with grout as in graffiti. Damora planted in Sorrento the first inlay workshops, among other things, arose precisely in Via Cesareo (where the Sedile Dominova, headquarters of the Workers’ Association) and other downtown alleys. Frames, boxes, small stipetteria and other items typical of the Sorrento inlay were made of olive wood, orange and lemon on the model of those products in Nice and wide spread in Europe: s decorations’
From 1840 to 1850, in the historical center, they sprouted dozens of small artisan workshops with masters and apprentices, while the prevalence in Europe of the romantic taste led to replace the neoclassical decoration with motifs suggested by the simultaneous collection of costumes Neapolitan artist Filippo Palazzi . In addition, since 1863, some niçois workers led to Sorrento the oblique cut, which made the most narrow connections, but also by introducing the practice of “ricacciatura”, ie the retouches with India ink of particular representational on lids of the boxes, staring all with a paint pad. Both allow considerable savings of time and promoted a certain serialization of products to which was accompanied by l ‘ technical and economic hegemony of the first dynasties the inlay craftsmen, such as Gargiulo, the Gradville, the Fiorentino, very skilled in combining a production at a good level with the individual artistic contribution. The ups and downs of the market marquetry have left traces in certain events handed down in the city’s tradition and, to the extent possible, the Workers’ Association helped to ensure minimum subsistence levels to cabinetmakers and their families. In this socio-economic reality of the city, in which leavened the inlay industry, came the foundation in 1886 of the Royal College of Art in Sorrento. The ups and downs of the market marquetry have left traces in certain events handed down in the city’s tradition and, to the extent possible, the Workers’ Association helped to ensure minimum subsistence levels to cabinetmakers and their families. In this socio-economic reality of the city, in which leavened the inlay industry, came the foundation in 1886 of the Royal College of Art in Sorrento. The ups and downs of the market marquetry have left traces in certain events handed down in the city’s tradition and, to the extent possible, the Workers’ Association helped to ensure minimum subsistence levels to cabinetmakers and their families. In this socio-economic reality of the city, in which leavened the inlay industry, came the foundation in 1886 of the Royal College of Art in Sorrento.

President-Mayor

The Sedil Dominova was between the late 800 and early ‘900 was the place where you accomplish important choices for the future of the working class and of the whole city.
The proactive role and active worker of the Company in this period, leavened with the help of William Tramontano, of his closest collaborators and shareholders animated by faith in the values of mutuality and cooperation among workers.
The Presidency Tramontano (1892-1908) brought a quantum leap by the performance of social activities. The provision goals of the association were not hampered by organizational difficulties and the time of the origins misunderstandings. The Board worked regularly. The provision of health and accident benefits (a penny a day for 60 days) was on time and helped to mitigate the sufferings of the working class of the city. Initiatives to increase the Old Age Fund enabled it to regularly ensure the board in favor of the shareholders entitled. Important facts because the Workers’ Association was one of the few associations of mutual Italy’s history to have achieved until the second post-war social security purposes.
Undeniable is the importance of President Tramontano, who in addition to leading the association, became in March 1900 also mayor of Sorrento. In the dual role he eventually affect in a positive and decisive influence on the internal affairs of the Workers’ Association and those (social and political) of the entire city of Sorrento. Tramontano was a hotelier and his figure also represents a great example of the successful evolution in the productive activities of Sorrento towards the primacy of the tourism and hotel sector. In its capacity as mayor from 1900 to 1909 Tramontano was able to achieve significant improvements in the image, in the structures and services in the country, as in the cases of water and electrical supplies, which enabled at the same time offer the most comfortable solution and adjusted to the tourist demand.
“A Sorrento? Reported in May 1909 a newspaper report Il Mattino di Napoli, inspired by a vision of the city from visitors – there are not poor because the municipal authority, in agreement with other bodies, shall be so housed in the Hospice St. Anthony? Illuminata electric light, constantly watered, provide only communications with the entire peninsula, Sorrento has a thriving Circle (Circolo dei Forestieri, in Luigi De Maio) that exquisitely welcoming guests, two cinemas, a theater Pool, nice in its simplicity, fresh, because next to the sea, which is managed prudently and where it gives the conference serotinamente elected vacationer colony “.
The city finally appeared adequate to the needs of its two major hotels, the Imperial Tramontano (owned by the President-mayor) and Excelsior Vittoria, to whom we still recognize their leading role between the 800 and the ‘beginning of? 900 in the tourism sector growth in Coast. In the golden book of this accommodation shone among the guests great names of the nobility and reigned era. In the early twentieth century, during the Belle Epoque, Sorrento was ready to compete, thanks to the prestige of its two prestigious hotels and Tramontano work of the Mayor, with the most famous Italian resorts.
E ‘right to recall, among other things, that the president was mayor owns the Grand Hotel Tramontano and has linked his name to the myth of the song “Come back to Sorrento”. The famous melody, composed by the brothers De Curtis in 1894, began his lucky fate of success around the world September 15, 1902, when it was carried out (albeit in a different version than the one in which he had already sung) in homage to an important guest of the city and of: Mr Giuseppe Zanardelli, President of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Italy.

The rich Astor

The Sedil Dominova was popular between the late 800 and early ‘900 by financier William Waldorf Astor, who was very close to the activities of the Workers’ Association, during his long stay in the Coast, as it is now commemorated by a plaque It located in the dining room. The plaque, written in Latin by scholar Henry Cocchia, testifies to the donation made by Astor: “Commendatore William Waldorf Astor, our honorary member, donated in favor of the Cassa old this working partnership a hefty 25 thousand francs. For much munificentissima offer the Workers’ association in eternal memory affix a plaque, remembering with it given the great gift received April 27, 1909, so this partnership has taken a step forward fifty years. ”
The plaque is still there and the benevolence of Astor remains one of the most common events in the stories of members and of all Sorrento.
The long stay of Astor on the Coast is also highlighted by the purchase of certain real estate properties, including the villa built by Baron Giovanni Calabrese Labonia Bocchigliero in most places on the site of the former monastery “Barracks of Jesus, in Sorrento, Via Marina Big 5 “. The property had as a guest the philosopher Benedetto Croce during World War II. After the death of Astor, his heir sold it to a Javanese and, later, this villa overlooking the sea (with the garden) became the owner’s residence Mariano Pane.
In Coast Astor arrived with the title of ambassador to the US Consulate, established in Sorrento in 1894. Later, the wealthy financier stayed in Sorrento for at least six months a year. The documents in the Workers’ Association, Astor attended the venue and entertained cordial relations with shareholders workers despite his immense wealth. He was a great friend of the president-mayor Tramontano.
William Waldorf Astor was a descendant of a wealthy family of German origin who had amassed great fortunes in America.
The great-grandfather John Jacob I, the founder of the Astor dynasty, was a butcher who emigrated from the town of Waldorf (Germany) in the United States in 1783. His fortune came from the marketing of the skins, but he obtained a real success thanks to his passion for the land. Coincidentally, during a confidential conversation with an American lawyer, he was struck by the statement that more than 50,000 acres of land in Putnam Country in New York were not the property of the peasants who lived there, after being bought by the American state. In previous years, in fact, that land had been leased for life to Roger Tory Morris which had been confiscated by the city of New York. According to the lawyer, the problem was the illegality of the practice,
John Jacob Astor went to England, where he lived all heirs Morris, and bought the land Putnam Country. Quandi, he returned to New York, notified to the purchase of seven hundred farming families, and ordered to vacate the sectors land illegally. The bitter legal battle ended with the partial recognition of JJ Astor’s thesis that, thanks to the financial crisis of 1837, he managed to grab a cheaper price indebted farms of the island of Manhattan.
Following the great development of New York City, the value of that land multiplied, and the founder of Astor became the richest man in America until his death in 1848.
Even the father of WW Astor, John Jacob II (son of W. Backhouse), as well as being great philanthropist who made large donations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was able to manage the family fortune bringing its value to almost 100 million dollars. Among other things, he participated in the American Civil War and during the war with Spain in 1898, had himself nominated colonel financed the complete equipment of an artillery battery and put at the disposal of the fleet Nourmahal his yacht.
WW Astor, contrary to parsimony of his father Jacob J. II, not s’accontentò the largest inventory of wealth: even obtained a patent of nobility in England, acquiring the title of Viscount of Hever Castle. He embarked for Europe in 1882, came to Rome and, according to the accounts of his nephew Michael, from the moment you set foot in Italy radically changed his behavior assuming attitudes halfway between the Roman Emperor and the medieval baron English. He began to collect ancient medieval and Renaissance sculptures, works of great masters. He came in contact with many artists, took sculpture classes by WW Story, deepened his knowledge of history. He published even two short stories and a book of short stories, and when he moved to England in 1890, He acquired the control of a newspaper and many magazines. He founded the magazine Pall Magazine in order to highlight his literary skills that had not emerged in the stories written in Italian. Its properties in Britain, Cliveden (formerly belonged to the Duke of Westminster and the Duke of Buckingham, bought for six million dollars in 1893), and Hever Castle, were opulent residences where he used to offer extravagant entertainment.
The beautiful story of the relationship between the workers of the Workers’ Association of Sorrento and the rich WW Astor testifies to the reality of a city where the visitor reception was becoming, between the late 800 and early? 900, one the fundamental elements of its tourist fortunes. The donation of the American financier institution did not represent mutual admission of the ambiguous figure of the protector socio Astor was a foreigner from the immense wealth, his gift was disinterested. In Sorrento, however, Astor is remembered for other donations from 25 thousand pounds each: municipal administration, all’Opsizio of the Poor of St. Anthony, the Real School of Art.

Hard times for the institution and for the city

The Sedile Dominova, through hospitality to the Workers’ Association, was at the center of many events in the city of Sorrento even after Tramontano presidency.
Ambitious projects mutual entity, however, dashed against the galloping economic crisis that preceded the start of the First World War, as evidenced by the Lire subsidy 102.50, sent from New York in 1914 by Alfonso Miccio emigrants, Cappiello Antonino and Luigi Di Paolo, in favor of citizens struggling with unemployment. The partnership labored to relieve the hardships of the members and of the population with participation in charities for Christmas 1914, together with the Municipality, the Congregation of Charity, the Commercial Circle. Difficult times if it is true that, to support the fight for the existence of the lower classes, it had to resort to emergency solution of the cookers (1915).
The institution and the city had to face even more difficult times later. The signs of new sufferings came in mid-1915 with the first called to arms, and, in some cases, with “death for the fatherland” for members and Sorrento left for the war front.
Meanwhile, within the institution, they ripened the symptoms of a wrenching crisis in governance, which resulted in the mass resignation of the Executive Council at its meeting on 5 May 1916. The Workers’ Association remained alive because the desire to move forward on the road of mutual purposes left the base, namely the General nell’Assembela members gathered with the decision to award the mandate in the white Carmine socio Lauro, vice president with the regent functions. The spirit of sacrifice of the social structure as a whole allowed an extraordinary event: the body Mutual continued to pay subsidies and provide pensions to members entitled “the economic hardship of the abnormal times of war.”
The first decades of? 900, for the institution and for the city, have gone down in history for the appearance on the Coast of socialist ideologies through the figure of Lelio Cappiello, adviser to the Workers’ Association and Mayor of Sorrento in different periods.
Lelio Cappiello was an attorney and the legal profession showed the traits of eloquence and the tenacity with which he could overcome obstacles, practical and dialectical, caused by the difficulty of the times. Since youth shone for his work in the Socialist Party. And, in 1907, when he enrolled in his early twenties mutual entity roles, he was soon able to influence in an important way on the choices of the association. Cappiello was also the director of “The Slingshot”, the magazine published in Socialist-monthly Sorrento peninsula twice a week early? 900: he dedicated many articles to the activities of the Workers’ Association and the problems of the working classes. His presence, inside the Workers’ Association and the leadership of the city, It proved invaluable in the years before and after the First World War. Cappiello was a key member of the Tramontano and after, among other things, contributed to the city’s political life until the ’70s as an alderman. It ‘hard not to feel admiration for Lelio Cappiello, always courageous in his decisions. He boasted of never to fail in his ideas. He gave proof of his consistency when Mussolini effected, September 17, 1924, an official visit to Sorrento, gliding with a seaplane in Piccola Marina waters. Lelio Cappiello, Socialist, did not attend the welcoming ceremony at the Duce with the following motivation: “The mayor is committed elsewhere.” He has contributed to the city’s political life until the ’70s as an alderman. It ‘hard not to feel admiration for Lelio Cappiello, always courageous in his decisions. He boasted of never to fail in his ideas. He gave proof of his consistency when Mussolini effected, September 17, 1924, an official visit to Sorrento, gliding with a seaplane in Piccola Marina waters. Lelio Cappiello, Socialist, did not attend the welcoming ceremony at the Duce with the following motivation: “The mayor is committed elsewhere.” He has contributed to the city’s political life until the ’70s as an alderman. It ‘hard not to feel admiration for Lelio Cappiello, always courageous in his decisions. He boasted of never to fail in his ideas. He gave proof of his consistency when Mussolini effected, September 17, 1924, an official visit to Sorrento, gliding with a seaplane in Piccola Marina waters. Lelio Cappiello, Socialist, did not attend the welcoming ceremony at the Duce with the following motivation: “The mayor is committed elsewhere.” September 17, 1924, an official visit to Sorrento, gliding with a seaplane in Piccola Marina waters. Lelio Cappiello, Socialist, did not attend the welcoming ceremony at the Duce with the following motivation: “The mayor is committed elsewhere.” September 17, 1924, an official visit to Sorrento, gliding with a seaplane in Piccola Marina waters. Lelio Cappiello, Socialist, did not attend the welcoming ceremony at the Duce with the following motivation: “The mayor is committed elsewhere.”

The period between the wars

The period between the wars had two faces. The first phase in which the Workers’ Association and the cities they walked on the road to financial recovery comforting. That later when they had to deal with the long wave of the Great Economic Crisis of 1929 and the desire of Mussolini and the Fascist regime to extend throughout Italy control over all forms of social aggregation of citizens. Throughout the period he was still Carmine Lauro, who was elected president with the votes of 1920, to ferry the body from one war.
In the first phase of this historical period there was an exceptional event: the beginning of 1918 the Workers’ Association extended its interventions in favor of the working members, with the institution for about two years of a Cooperative consumption. Again it can be said that few of Italy mutuals have been able, in their history, to realize this objective, especially in abnormal times due to war.
The Company Opearaia Sorrento came with the ability to boast a comforting resumption of its pension business in the festivities of 50.mo anniversary, celebrated in fact in 1926, while supposed to be held the following year.
The last moment of collective enthusiasm was established in 1928 by the famous exchange of courtesies with Benito Mussolini: the gift (a frame inlaid) delivered in Rome by President Lauro to Duce of Fascism, who sent, in turn, a money order of ten thousand lire to be donated to fund retirement for the benefit of retired members.
The turn to the difficult phase of the partnership took place at the beginning of 1933 with the cut by about a third of the costs, due to the “significant number of delinquent members and to erase.”
This situation was the thermometer of the problems felt all over the city including the effects of the Great Depression, unemployment and the failure of the Astarita Bank where many emigrants returned from the United States, had invested their savings.
While the financial hardships continued to rise, the Workers’ Association felt more and more pressure from the fascist regime, which tended to extend targeted interventions to control all forms of spontaneous aggregation in civil society. Facts symptomatic of this reality: The verbal notice of eviction from Sedil Dominova (averted in 1938), the risk of dissolution determined by the order the government to channel the flags (national and social) to the National Guild of Naples (1939) . In addition, the Circular of the voluntary Mutual of November 1939, which advised to avoid any meeting. Faced with this measure, the Workers’ Association was forced to not to convene the General Assembly of shareholders.
The Carmine Lauro President and Board of Directors had to administer the association with full powers, in a continuous emergency situation.

The Second World War

The Workers’ Mutual Aid Society of Sorrento emerged from World War II still able to function and achieve the mutual purpose for which it was founded in 1877.
Its activities remained positive for the shareholders and for the city, while the Sedile Dominova, thanks to the presence mutual entity, retained the prestige of the historical role of representing strategic reference point for workers and for the people of Sorrento. The Second World War began with the Workers’ Association still able to affect the social fabric of the city, although involved in the great process of change initiated by the fall of Fascism (1943), the Liberation (1945) and votes of 2 June 1946 in which the Italian, in addition to going to choose the republic and to throw behind the Savoy monarchy, the Constitution, elected members of the Assembly, a parliament with the task of writing the tense of the new constitution. In this context, the early ’60s,
In this context, profoundly it changes over time of the founding, the Workers ‘Association was able to keep fully honor its mutual purposes to the end of the’ 60s with the actual payment of benefits and pensions.

The long presidency Stinga

The long presidency of Antonino string, it began in 1976, enabled the Workers’ Association of Sorrento to continue its activities to date, albeit with targeted choices to adapt its aims to profoundly changed times.
The turning point in this direction took place during the celebrations for the centenary in 1977. The partnership, set aside the mutual purposes, began to launch cultural initiatives, gatherings for workers and citizens, scholarships for young people city ​​students, charitable activities, the honors to missing members and the procession of November 1 to pay tribute to the Monument Company dedicated to deceased members, the setting up of the artistic nativity scene for Christmas. The efforts made by President Stinga, since 1976, has enabled the institution to continue with dignity its historical presence in the life of the city of Sorrento. In 1977, during the celebrations for the Centenary, Stinga inserted in his speech this idea: ” I wish to express the conviction that our Workers’ Association has played an important role in the life of Sorrento and on the basis of this heritage today we must go on, albeit in a different role. We should always be close to the workers and worry of their existence in other aspects omitted “.
Even now, at the dawn of the third millennium, the Workers’ Association continues to operate in the life of the city of Sorrento, although no specific reference to “mutual aid” among workers, the aim proudly trumpeted by the founding members. The change of the association functions, like that of all mutual institutions of the same type, was the inevitable consequence of massive intervention of the state in the field of welfare and social security. Within the general framework of mutualism, the Workers ‘Association of Sorrento was able to represent one of the best examples is because he actually paid until the 60 subsidies for disease and disability and old-age pensions, and because it has played a significant action in’ interest of the entire city. The great figures of some presidents, like William Tramontano and Carmine Lauro, must not lead us to a vision of their actions in an individualistic way, but should be included in the actual historical situations of the communities in which they acted at different times. The workers’ association has helped write the stortia Sorrento through many “everyday heroes” of the working classes who, from the time of founding to the present, have witnessed every day the faith in their ideals. Piutoosto the remarkable fact that, at the beginning of? 900, President Tramontano and (later) the adviser Lelio Cappiello has become mayors of Sorrento, is the historical evidence of how the Workers’ Society as a whole has been able to represent the place healthy aggregation in the interest of the whole city. They must not lead to a vision of their actions in an individualistic way, but should be included in the actual historical situations of the communities in which they acted at different times. The workers’ association has helped write the stortia Sorrento through many “everyday heroes” of the working classes who, from the time of founding to the present, have witnessed every day the faith in their ideals. Piutoosto the remarkable fact that, at the beginning of? 900, President Tramontano and (later) the adviser Lelio Cappiello has become mayors of Sorrento, is the historical evidence of how the Workers’ Society as a whole has been able to represent the place healthy aggregation in the interest of the whole city. They must not lead to a vision of their actions in an individualistic way, but should be included in the actual historical situations of the communities in which they acted at different times. The workers’ association has helped write the stortia Sorrento through many “everyday heroes” of the working classes who, from the time of founding to the present, have witnessed every day the faith in their ideals. Piutoosto the remarkable fact that, at the beginning of? 900, President Tramontano and (later) the adviser Lelio Cappiello has become mayors of Sorrento, is the historical evidence of how the Workers’ Society as a whole has been able to represent the place healthy aggregation in the interest of the whole city. but shall be integrated in real historical situations of the communities in which they acted at different times. The workers’ association has helped write the stortia Sorrento through many “everyday heroes” of the working classes who, from the time of founding to the present, have witnessed every day the faith in their ideals. Piutoosto the remarkable fact that, at the beginning of? 900, President Tramontano and (later) the adviser Lelio Cappiello has become mayors of Sorrento, is the historical evidence of how the Workers’ Society as a whole has been able to represent the place healthy aggregation in the interest of the whole city. but shall be integrated in real historical situations of the communities in which they acted at different times. The workers’ association has helped write the stortia Sorrento through many “everyday heroes” of the working classes who, from the time of founding to the present, have witnessed every day the faith in their ideals. Piutoosto the remarkable fact that, at the beginning of? 900, President Tramontano and (later) the adviser Lelio Cappiello has become mayors of Sorrento, is the historical evidence of how the Workers’ Society as a whole has been able to represent the place healthy aggregation in the interest of the whole city.
Facts and documents show that the Workers’ Association and the world workers have accompanied economic developments, social and political Sorrento from the second half of the 800 to date. The evolution of the country where the main productive activities were the seafaring occupations, the citrus industry and agricultural crops, the nascent industry of marquetry wood, arts and crafts traditions, to the town proud of its great fortunes in tourism and hotel sector.
After visiting the Sedil Dominova, you can not help but grow a reflection: in this place pulsated the most authentic part of the soul of Sorrento, that of his people. This happened at a time when, from the fourteenth century, the monumental structure was the site of a part of the nobility meeting to make political decisions relating to the administration of the city. This happened at a time when, starting from 1877, the building became the headquarters of the Workers’ Mutual Aid Society. The history of the working classes and the history of Sorrento have lived important moments.
This is not only the “Land of the Sirens”, the land of environmental beauty, churches, monuments, music, songs and famous visitors. Every day, on Via San Cesareo, a look or a visit to Sedil Dominova allow you to experience feelings and messages related to the soul genuine Sorrento: that of his people. For visitors, the sense of discovery, lived through the vision and historical information on the monumental building. For the inhabitants of this land, the pride of being able to repeat the words of Torquato Tasso “Sorrento town where I was born.”

Texts and images were taken from “Sorrento – Sedil Dominova – Workers Society of Mutual Aid” John Petagna and John Siniscalchi (Published by the Printing House Petagna of Sorrento in 2004)