The Scala Fenicia, is a series of steps built by the first Greek colonizers, and was the only communication route between Marina Grande and the top parts of the island until 1877.
The commodities were carried by the women from Capri on their heads, whose particular beauty was object of admiration by the numerous travellers at that time. Despite the name "Scala Fenicia" the construction is attributed to the Greeks, as the top part of the steps are carved into the rock according to the customs that they used when joining the acropolis to the harbours. The steps begin in the Sea Villa district, the most ancient Greek centre in Capri and, crossing gardens and vineyards, it climbs and crosses the road used today by cars near the chapel of St. Anthony.
The church square represented a moment of pleasant and relieving rest for those people who climbed the tortuous slope.
Probably, in place of the chapel from the mid 1600's, there was already an area built in Roman times where people could rest, and there is proof of traces of Roman masonry.
The chapel remains under the village Capodimonte, on the summit of which there is "Porta della Differenzia", that owes its name to the rivalry among the Municipalities.
Over recent centuries the Scala Fenicia has also taken on a role of a botanical station on the island. Brother Paolo Boccone, a Cistercian monk and botanic of the Duke of Tuscany, found some of the most beautiful species at the Scala that he used in his "Museum of rare plants" at the end of the 1600.