About 50 km southeast lies the promontory of
Santa Maria di Leuca (so called since ancient times from its white
cliffs, leukos being Greek for white), the southeastern extremity of
Italy, the ancient Promontorium lapygium or Sallentinum.
The
district between this promontory and Otranto is thickly populated, and very
fertile.
To See
Otranto main monuments include:
The Castello Aragonese (Castle), reinforced by Emperor
Frederick II and rebuilt by
Alfonso I of Aragon in 1485-1498. 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 an 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. It has a crypt supported by
forty-two 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.
Otranto - Photo © 