The Marina Grande (Large Marina), which was the only seafaring village in Sorrento until the 15th century, is located on the mouth of the ravine closing on the west the old city and crossed on top by the bridge of Parsano, from where it started the Via Minerva (Athena’s Road) leading to the sanctuary of Athena on the Punta Campanella. Marina Grande is separated from the centre of Sorrento by the promontory which housed the Roman villa of Agrippa Postumus, nephew of the emperor Octavian Augustus. Even now we enter the Marina Grande (if we follow the pedestrian path) through the ancient gate, built with large blocks of limestone. For its construction typology (even if it was renovated many times) we estimate it belongs to the 3rd century before Christ. From here entered the Saracen pirates who ravaged Sorrento in 1558, because of the betrayal of a slave who, as told by the tradition, in the middle of the night secretly opened the gate, otherwise impregnable.
