Otranto Cathedral

Built on the remains of a Messapiic village, a Roman house and an early Christian church or temple, the cathedral was founded in 1068 by the Norman bishop William.

The mosaic running the whole length of the nave, sanctuary and apse is 12th century in date – it was commissioned by the first Latin archbishop of the city, Gionata.

A north-west door was built in the late 15th or early 16th century by Nicholas Fernando on the instructions of archbishop Serafino da Squillace, whose figure was carved on the structure.

In 1693 archbishop Francesco Maria De Aste built the triumphal arch and in 1698 covered the central nave and the sanctuary with a black, white and gilded wooden ceiling.

The Baroque-style main portal consists of two half-fluted columns on either side holding up the pediment, with the coat of arms of Archbishop Gabriel de Santander Adarzo supported by two angels.

The interior plan has a nave and two aisles with apses, separated by twelve arches, which are supported by fourteen granite columns each with a different capital The high altar is in the presbytery area, with an 18th-century silver antependium, with episodes of the Annunciation of Mary.

It houses, in seven large glassed recesses, the bones of the Otranto citizens slaughtered and beheaded by the Ottomans on 14 August 1480 after they had refused to abandon the Christian faith.

It has three semi-circular apses and forty-eight bays supported by more than seventy columns, semicolumns and pillars taken from different ancient and medieval buildings.

It was commissioned by the first Latin archbishop of the city, Jonatas, and was executed in 1163-1165 by a group of artists headed by Pantaleon, a basilian monk from the monastery of San Nicola di Casole, located a few kilometers south of Otranto.

The tower, built in mostly white, local variants of limestone, was likely the support of a taller structure, which overwatched the sea and the surrounding areas.