Otranto (UK: /ɒˈtræntoʊ/,[3] US: /oʊˈtrɑːntoʊ/,[4][5] Italian: [ˈɔːtranto]; Salentino: Oṭṛàntu; Griko: Δερεντό, romanized: Derentò; Ancient Greek: Ὑδροῦς, romanized: Hudroûs; Latin: Hydruntum) is a coastal town, port and comune in the province of Lecce (Apulia, Italy), in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.

[7] The lighthouse Faro della Palascìa, at approximately 5 kilometres (3 miles) southeast of Otranto, marks the most easterly point of the Italian mainland.

About 50 kilometres (31 mi) south 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 Iapygium or Sallentinum.

Otranto was a town of Messapian (Illyrian) origin, which, in the wars of Pyrrhus and of Hannibal sided against Rome.

[8] It remained in the hands of the Byzantine emperors until it was among the last cities of Apulia to surrender to the Norman Robert Guiscard in 1068.

In 1480, Sultan Mehmed II sent an Ottoman fleet to invade Rome under the command of Gedik Ahmed Pasha.

In 1804, the city was obliged to harbour a French garrison that was established there to watch the movements of the English fleet.

The Austro-Hungarian Fleet led by captain Miklós Horthy attacked the Barrage (13 -15 May 1917) breaking it and sinking some British drifters (Battle of the Strait of Otranto (1917)).

Walpole had chosen the town from a map of the Kingdom 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.