There are places in this troubled world that are so stunning in their beauty that they can transfix even the most jaded travelers on arrival.

Ravello, high atop a rocky precipice overlooking the Mediterranean sea in southern Italy, is one of those places.

To convince others that our reason for going there is really a pilgrimage is no easy task. And yet a very holy feeling is what most people experience in Ravello, a place of sublime beauty that helps us remember how enchanting God's world can be.

Such great charm, of course, did not escape the builders of the Faith, and in 1086 Ravello became a bishopric, housing by then 13 churches and four monasteries. Soon a vast cathedral was built. The Duomo (as each town's cathedral is called) is not imposing from the outside, having been often restored, except for its heavy bronze doors, exquisitely carved by Barisano da Trani in 1179. Its 54 squares depict saints and Christ's Passion.

The Duomo was begun in 1086 and dedicated to St. Pantaleone, patron of Ravello and of physicians. The bishop at that time also had an intriguing name, Orso Papirio.

St. Pantaleone's Blood

The saint's legend describes him as court physician to the Emperor Galerius. Converted from a life of indulgence to one of Christianity, he was arrested during the persecutions of Diocletian. Killing him tried the lethal skills of many until he was finally beheaded in the year 303, while a halo and other fine things appeared around him.

The late, delightful Catholic traveler H. V. Morton noted that “there was great competition for doctor saints during the Middle Ages, particularly in the maritime towns that traded with the East and were so often stricken by plague; and no doubt the bones of St. Pantaleone arrived by way of the relic trade or by tomb robbery similar to the pious burglaries that brought St. Mark's body to Venice and St. Nicholas to Bari.”

Last year, one very wet spring afternoon, I took a bus up the long, tortuous road from seaside Amalfi to Ravello. Diagonal sheets of rain quickly decimated my umbrella when I got out in Ravello, and I found myself running past the great bronze doors of the cathedral for shelter of more than one kind. Walking through its huge interior space, I heard a murmuring and soon found myself kneeling with a rosary group, intoning “Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, ora per noi peccatori

…” None of the local women at prayer seemed annoyed by the squishy shoes of the dripping foreigner.

When we finished, I walked around the church, so simple inside yet graced with great artistic dignity by a stunning pulpit dating from 1272. Its oblong lectern of marble and exquisite mosaic designs perches on six slim, twisting columns that rest on the backs of growling, toothy lions.

Near the pulpit stands a rare mosaic work in which Jonah is clearly seen being devoured by the whale, a metaphor for Christ's descent into the underworld before the Resurrection.

St. Pantaleone's side altar was built in 1643 to honor the doctor saint. His feast day is July 27, when his blood is apt to liquefy in its reliquary ampoule.

Apart from the natural beauty of Ravello and much of the Amalfi coast below, Ravello derives much of its earthly charm from the delicate columns and arches of its Arab Norman past. King Roger the Norman occupied southern Italy during the 11th century, about the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Contact then with the Middle East was frequent, unfortunately, because of the Crusades. Then, too, Amalfi's status as a major port made it a cultural crossroads. The Arab civilization of the time, particularly in nearby Sicily, was among the most advanced in the world in art and literature.

From the cathedral, the grand garden-rich villas of Ravello are a short walk. The Villa Rufolo was once home to Pope Hadrian

IV. Hadrian's short 12th-century reign saw this first English Pope alllied with the emperor Frederick Barbarossa and being rejected by the Roman commune; he surely enjoyed his respite here. Villa Cimbrone, from its seaside end, has one of the finest panoramas of coast, sea and sky that I have ever seen. Afternoons are the best time in summer to enjoy an unhazy view from its belvedere. On the way into Villa Cimbrone, notice the figures of the Seven Deadly Sins in a cloister-like area.

Among other churches in Ravello that merit a stop, you'll find the 12th-century church of San Giovanni del Toro, with its persian-inspired mosaics and a frescoed crypt open to visitors.

Look for the charming domes shown in many illustrations of Ravello, such as the one atop the 13th-century Annunciata, on a level below the Villa Rufolo. Two other churches are located nearby, Santa Maria delle Grazie and San Pietro (Peter). From here the more athletic can continue down through the tiny village of Torello and onward to the major beach town of Minori.

Before leaving Ravello, I always find another tiny holy-water font (aquasantiera) for my collection, available here at a very modest price. Some are about a little finger long, in ceramics. In Piazza Duomo itself, which is very large, many small shops sell ceramics of good quality and other imaginative works, such as an intricate Nativity scene carved out of coral.

Like so many Italian towns in which the modern mingles so easily with the ancient, Ravello beckons the tourist looking for rest and relaxation—while rewarding the pilgrim looking for a special place to pray.

Barbara Coeyman Hults is based in New York City.