At Malfa there are two churches: that of the patron saint, St Laurence (whose cult was brought there by the Amalfi settlers in 1100 and gave the name to the village) and the Immacolata church the latter, which is at the centre of the village, was begun in the 19th century. After a phase in which the church seemed to have been designed badly, it was completed in the early 1920s but was only opened to the public In 1928. The San Lorenzo church was first built in 1733 (but It seems that another one exited in the seventeenth century) and was enlarged in 1760. The work was completed in 1778. The nred to build two churches derived from the large number of people who lived al Matfa in about 1860: at least 5,000. In 1926 a tremendous earthquake seriously damaged the church, and indeed for some time mass was celebrated in a warehouse. While the Immacolata church was opened to the faithful, in 1929 reconstruction work began, to be completed in 1931.