Statue Dedicated to Flavio Gioia (Amalfi)

The bronze statue of Flavio Gioia stands with one hand outstretched, holding a mariner's compass toward the sea. Amalfi honors him as the man who invented this navigational tool during the fourteenth century. Historians debate whether he was a real person or a composite legend created by later writers to bolster the town's maritime reputation. Regardless of his existence, the sculpture serves as a physical claim to the city's role in the development of modern seafaring and navigation.