Gateway to the Amalfi coast, coming from the Chiunzi pass, the first human settlements in Sant'Egidio del Monte Albino dated back to the II centiry b.C., as the remains of a rustic Roman villa testify, now incorporated into the crypt of the Abbey of Santa Maria Maddalena in Armillis. Other Roman remains are burial cairns, a statue of the god Sarno and an aqueduct.
After the fall of the Roman Empire it was conquered by the Lombards and due to its strategic position, along the main street to Amalfi and Ravello, a castrum was built there. Between the VIII and the IX century, a Benedectine monastery dedicated to Saint Gilles (Sant'Egidio in italian) was built in the area where the Roman villa was located. The monastery was mentioned for the first time in a documen of 1113 by which the property of the monastery passed under the control of the Abbey of San Trifone in Ravello. From the XV century to the XIV century it was an "universitas" of Nuceria.
The town of Sant'Egidio del Monte Albino has a rich and interesting monumental heritage, such as the Abbey of Santa Maria Madalena in Armillis, built in the early of the XVI century on the ruins of a Roman villa, with valuable paintings by Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena and an imposing altarpiece by Andrea da salerno, Raffaello's pupil, the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Church of San Lorenzo, aristocratic palaces and courtyards.