The church is so called because of the stream Lavina ("wastewater") that still flows under the road to it now and was built in a period subsequent to 832; in that year, the Duke Sicardo Salerno, conquered Amalfi and deported the inhabitants to Salerno, confining them in the current quarter said the "Fornelle"; prisoners so wanted to build a church dedicated to their patron. The front of the temple is currently facing to the east, but was once turned to the West, in this situation it remained until at least the end of the sixteenth century: the first church, built on the ruins of a Roman building, is buried at least 6 meters below the present street level, and has the remains of three apses frescoes of which only the center is clearly visible, with the representation of the four Archangels.
Around the tenth century, perhaps as a result of a flood, the previous church was partly demolished and used as a burial ground (some skeletons recently unearthed, are still in the original position and are made visible, creating an evocative atmosphere), and on it there was built a larger one, of which there are still two of the three naves, plus a few stump of a fresco depicting two saints and an inscription in greek, which testifies to a possible different environment, in addition to the amalfitan one. The third church was built on the previous one (which became in turn a burial ground) around the twelfth century: witness of the change is a palimpsest of frescoes (the oldest of which date back to that era) representing two holy bishops (early fourteenth century), a second layer hardly readable and a third layer seventeenth-century painted as a fake tabernacle, with scenes from the life of a saint, maybe Andrea himself.
