Positano is in a very suggestive location in the middle of
a small gulf.
According to a tradition, it was founded by the inhabitants of Paestum, who sought shelter here to elude the
Saracen pirates. For this reason it was calied Pestano or Pesitano. It lies on the
place where a Benedictine Abbey was. This monastery was dedicated to St. Vitus and existed before the X century. More
probably however, the name comes the Posidii,
freedmen of the Claudian age, who had here à property. This small town was fortified after the ravages
caused by the raid of the Pisans in 1268 and faced more or less the same events as the other villages of the coast.
During the so called War of the Vespers together with Amalfi, it provided the Angevin
government with ships. In 1492 Positano, which for some timw had been a vassal of the Benedictine Abbey,
became a feud of Giovanni Miroballo of Naples, then of Marino Mastrogiudice, Giovanni Giacomo Cossa and others.