page_title: Otranto
section_title: Main sights
hierarchical_section_title: Otranto / Main sights
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Italien, Otranto, Kathedrale Santa Maria Annunziata English: Italy, Otranto, Cathedral Santa Maria Annunziata
context_page_description: Otranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce, in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.
  It is located on the east coast of the Salento peninsula. The Strait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and separates Italy from Albania. The harbour is small and has little trade.
  The lighthouse Faro della Palascìa, at approximately 5 kilometres southeast of Otranto, marks the most easterly point of the Italian mainland.
  About 50 kilometres south lies the promontory of Santa Maria di Leuca, the southeastern extremity of Italy, the ancient Promontorium lapygium or Sallentinum. The district between this promontory and Otranto is thickly populated and very fertile.
context_section_description: Otranto main sights include:
  The Castello Aragonese (Castle), reinforced by Emperor Frederick II and rebuilt by Alphonso 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 a draw-bridge. Towers include three cylindrical ones and a bastion called Punta di Diamante ("Diamond's Head"). The entrance sports the coat of arms of Emperor Charles V.
  The Cathedral, 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. Bones and relics of the Martyrs 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 by Bessarion.
  The church of San Pietro, with Byzantine frescoes.
  The catacombs of Torre Pinta.
  Idro, a small river which the toponym Otranto stems from.
caption: The Cathedral of Otranto
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