It is located on the east coast of theSalento peninsula. TheStrait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects theAdriatic Sea with theIonian Sea and separates Italy fromAlbania. The harbour is small and has little trade.[7]
The lighthouseFaro della Palascìa, at approximately five kilometres (three miles) southeast of Otranto, marks the most easterly point of the Italian mainland.
About 50 kilometres (31 mi) south lies the promontory ofSanta Maria di Leuca (so called since ancient times from its white cliffs,leukos being Greek for white), the southeastern extremity of Italy, the ancientPromontorium Iapygium orSallentinum. The district between this promontory and Otranto is thickly populated and very fertile.[7]
The area that lies between Otranto andSanta Maria di Leuca is part of the Regional Natural Coastal Park of "Costa Otranto -Santa Maria di Leuca e Bosco diTricase" wanted by theApulia Region in 2008. This territory has numerous natural and historical attractions such asCiolo, which is a rocky cove.
Otranto occupies the site of the ancient Greek city ofMagna GraeciaHydrus (in Greek: Ὑδροῦς) orHydruntum (in Latin), also known asHydrunton,Hydronton, orHydruntu. Otranto was a town ofMessapian (Illyrian) origin, which, in the wars ofPyrrhus and ofHannibal sided against Rome.
In Roman times it was a city. As it is the nearest port to the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, it was perhaps more important thanBrundisium (present Brindisi), under the Roman emperors as a point of embarkation for the East, as the distance toApollonia, (in present Albania) was less than from Brundisium.[7]
On 17 August 928, the city was sacked by aFatimid fleet underSabir al-Fata. Its inhabitants were carried to North Africa as slaves.[8] It remained in the hands of theByzantine emperors until it was among the last cities of Apulia to surrender to the NormanRobert Guiscard in 1068. It then became part of thePrincipality of Taranto. In the Middle Ages, the Jews had a school there.
Skulls of "Martyrs of Otranto" on display in Otranto cathedral
In 1480, SultanMehmed II sent anOttoman fleet toinvade Rome under the command ofGedik Ahmed Pasha. The force reached the shores of Apulia on 28 July 1480, and the city was captured in two weeks on 11 August 1480. All of the male inhabitants were slaughtered by the victorious Ottomans. Of the 22,000 inhabitants, only 10,000 were left alive. Some 800 citizens, known as the "Martyrs of Otranto", were beheaded after they had refused to convert to Islam. They were canonised by Pope Francis on 12 May 2013.[9] ArchbishopStefano Pendinelli was also martyred.
Between August and September 1480, the Italian and European kingdoms failed to help King Ferdinand of Naples except for his cousin Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain, the Kingdom of Sicily and later the Republic of Genoa.[10] In 1481, the Pope, in panic, called for a crusade to be led byKing Ferdinand of Naples and was joined by troops of Hungarian kingMatthias Corvinus. The Ottomans controlled the city for 13 months. Mehmed II died on his way to capture the rest of Italy.[11] His successor, SultanBayezid II, ordered Gedik Ahmed Pasha to be hanged. On 11 September 1481, the Ottomans abandoned the city.
In 1537, the famous Ottoman corsair and admiralBarbarossa recaptured Otranto and the Fortress of Castro, but the Ottomans were again repulsed from the city and from the rest of Apulia.
In 1804, the city was obliged to harbour a French garrison that was established there to watch the movements of the English fleet.[citation needed] Under the French name ofOtrante it was created aduché grand-fief de l'Empire in the Napoleonic kingdom of Naples forJoseph Fouché, Napoleon's minister of Police (1809).[citation needed] The family used the title ofduc d'Otrante after Joseph Fouché's death.[citation needed]
During WWI the allied Italian-French-British Fleet organized theOtranto Barrage to control the Austro-Hungarian Fleet in the Adriatic Sea. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet led by captainMiklós Horthy attacked the Barrage (13–15 May 1917) breaking it and sinking some British drifters (Battle of the Strait of Otranto (1917)).[12]
The Cathedral of OtrantoHead ofAbraham, detail of the mosaic covering most of the cathedral's floor.The harbor of Otranto seen from the historic centerChoir of the church ofSan Pietro.
Otranto main sights include:
TheCastello Aragonese (Castle), reinforced by EmperorFrederick II and rebuilt byAlphonso II of Naples in 1485–98. It has an irregular plan with five sides, with a moat running along the entire perimeter. In origin it had a single entrance, reachable through adraw-bridge. Towers include three cylindrical ones and a bastion calledPunta di Diamante ("Diamond's Head"). The entrance sports the coat of arms of EmperorCharles V.
TheCathedral, consecrated in 1088, a work of Count Roger I adorned later (about 1163), by Bishop Jonathas, with a mosaic floor; it has a rose window and side portal of 1481. The interior, a basilica with nave and two aisles, contains columns said to come from a temple of Minerva and a fine mosaic pavement of 1166, with interesting representations of the months,Old Testament subjects and others.[7] Bones and relics of theMartyrs of Otranto, who perished in the 15th-century siege surround the high altar. The church has a crypt supported by 42 marble columns. The same Count Roger also founded a Basilian monastery here, which, under Abbot Nicetas, became a place of study; its library was nearly all bought byBessarion.
The church ofSan Pietro, with Byzantine frescoes.
The catacombs ofTorre Pinta.
Idro, a small river which the toponym Otranto stems from.
Otranto is the setting ofHorace Walpole's bookThe Castle of Otranto, which is generally held to be the firstGothic novel. Walpole had chosen the town from a map of theKingdom of Naples because the name was "well-sounding"; he was not aware that Otranto had a castle until 1786, some twenty-two years after the novel was first published under a pseudonym. The principal model for the castle washis villa inStrawberry Hill,London.[15]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Otranto".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^Halm, Heinz (1991).Das Reich des Mahdi: Der Aufstieg der Fatimiden [The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the Fatimids] (in German). Munich: C. H. Beck. pp. 214–215.ISBN978-3-406-35497-7.
^Carlo Stasi, Otranto e l'Inghilterra (episodi bellici in Puglia e nel Salento), in Note di Storia e Cultura Salentina, anno XV, pp. 127–159, (Argo, Lecce, 2003), Paul G. Halpern, The Battle of the Otranto Straits (controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in WWI) (Bloomington, I.U.P. 2004).
^Carlo Stasi, Otranto e l'Inghilterra (episodi bellici in Puglia e nel Salento), in Note di Storia e Cultura Salentina, anno XV, pp. 127–159, (Argo, Lecce, 2003), Carlo Stasi, Otranto nel Mondo. Dal "Castello" di Walpole al "Barone" di Voltaire (Editrice Salentina, Galatina 2018)ISBN978-88-31964-06-7, Thomas P. Lowry, The Attack on Taranto (Stackpoole Books paperbacks, 2000)
^Walpole, Horace; Clery, E.J. (2008) [1764]. Lewis, W.S. (ed.).The Castle of Otranto (Oxford World's Classics ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 117.ISBN9780199537211., Carlo Stasi,Otranto nel Mondo. Dal "Castello" di Walpole al "Barone" di Voltaire (Editrice Salentina, Galatina 2018)ISBN978-88-31964-06-7
