During the summer we spent several weeks in Otranto, one of the most beautiful towns and the easternmost one in all of Italy. Here (always trying to avoid the hottest parts of the day), we investigated some of its history and explored the surrounding landscape.
The Deer Cave
The Grotta dei Cervi is not open to the public but it is cool to know it is there. In 1970 a team of speleologists discovered a network of caves near Otranto in which there were hundreds of paintings and about 3000 pictograms dating from the Late Neolithic period.
Hydrus
In the first millennium BCE, Apulia (the region roughly corresponding to the ‘heel’ of Italy’s boot) was settled by waves of immigrants from the Balkan peninsula. These were the Iapygi, a people known for their skill at shepherding, farming, and breeding horses. ‘Apuli’ is supposedly the Oscan version of ‘Iapgyi’, so ‘Apulia/Puglia’ means ‘land of the Iagpygi’.
The Iapygians intermingled with the native population and the peoples of Apulia became known as three separate cultures. The people of north Apulia were Daunians, those from the Bari region were Peucetians, and the people in the south were Messapi and/or Sallentini. Even today the southern part of Apulia, where Otranto sits, is known as the Salento peninsula.
Starting from the 8th century BCE, Greek cities began establishing colonies abroad, resulting in Magna Grecia or ‘Greater Greece’: the network of ancient Greek colonies and trading posts that extended from Spain to the Black Sea but that was particularly strong in Sicily and Calabria. It was during this period, the Greeks founded the town of Hydrus, the site of modern Otranto. One reminder of this period is in the name of the river Idro, now a brackish trickle, that flows into the sea.
By the time of the Roman Republic, Hydruntum was the main point of embarkation for the east. It was the best way to reach the town of Apollonia (in modern Albania), which was the closest port to Italy and described by Cicero as a large and important city. Apollonia was also a renowned center of learning; in 44BCE, Octavian (later Augustus) was there studying under Athenodorus of Tarsus when he heard his step-father Julius Caesar was murdered.
Sailing to Byzantium
For most of the early middle ages, from 554-1059, Salento was part of the Eastern Roman Empire. Incidentally, throughout Salento, there are small pockets of Griko-speaking communities—a living result of communities that grew up around Byzantine monasteries at the time. Otranto was an important port for those travelling to and from Byzantium and the Holy Land. Many of the pilgrims would have stopped in at the city’s oldest extant buildings, the Church of San Pietro to pray for a good voyage and to admire the frescos.
Normans & Swabians
In 1068 the Normans besieged Otranto and took it and made it part of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. It was the Normans who consecrated the famous Cathedral of Otranto with its intriguing mosaic.
From about 1200-1250 the city came under the reign of Frederick II ‘Stupor Mundi’, the very bright and buildery Holy Roman Emperor. It is supposedly during this time that the Torre del Serpente (Tower of the Snake) was built as a lighthouse or signal tower. Over time, this tower came to be considered almost magical. Legend has it that a snake lives there and does funny things.
For example, in one story, a few years before the fatal sack of 1480 the Turks were planning an attack but couldn’t find the city from the sea because the snake had swallowed all the the oil in the lighthouse. The tower, with snake, appears on the city’s coat of arms.
The Sack of Otranto
In a lot of southern towns you will see streets named ‘Martiri d’Otranto’ (Martyrs of Otranto). This refers to the dramatic conquest of the town in 1480 by Ottoman forces in the reign of Mehmed II, just 28 years after the fall of Constantinople. Contemporary accounts say that more than 800 citizens were beheaded. Today in the Cathedral there is an impressive collection of skulls in tribute to them.
At the time, there was fear throughout Italy that, having gained a toehold on the peninsula, they would continue and threaten Rome itself. When Mehmed II died in 1481, the Ottomans seem to have lost momentum and left Otranto in September of that year.
As a memorial to this traumatic event, a large statue stands etween restaurants and souvenir shops looking defiantly out to sea. The bones of the martyrs themselves are kept in an ossuary visible to visitors to the Cathedral.
The Aragonese & BorbonsÂ
Starting from the sixteenth century, ‘Terra d’Otranto’ became a province of the Kingdom of Naples under the Aragonese dynasty (1500-1713). They set about improving fortifications along the coasts, hoping to deter invaders and raiders that had been part of the country’s experience for centuries. As part of this project they radically improve the Castle of Otranto, which (despite later additions) is now known as the ‘Aragonese Castle’. This was the location of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), the world’s first gothic novel.
The Borbons (1714-1806 /1816-1861) don’t seem to have had a huge impact on Apulia. I get the feeling the province was considered a bit of a backwater for the Neapolitan elite. The travelogue of a Borbon official journeying through Terra d’Otranto is full of interesting details such as seeing the heads of brigands displayed in cages. Of the city he says:
Otranto, is so old, that there is not even a shadow of a memory remaining of previous ages, its surrounding areas are so well loved for the abundance of sources and of natural springs, which run between woods of laurel, myrtle, oranges and olives.
This place is very close to the mounts of Epiro, that were told by Pirro [Phyrrus] who conceived the strange idea that Greece and Italy could be united by a bridge which would have been about five hundred miles long.The journey from Otranto to Corfu with good winds permitting can be done in only a few hours, so one is able in a few hours to go and visit the gardens of Alcinoo.
The Tragedy of Otranto
When we were having lunch at a café near the marina we noticed a big rusting hulk that seemed to have been converted into some kind of sculpture, with plates of green glass representing water.
This sculpture, by Costas Varotsos, references what is sometimes called The Tragedy of Otranto. It incorporates the actual remains of the Kateri i Radës, an Albanian ship that sank after a collision with an Italian Navy ship that was trying to prevent illegal immigration in 1997. About 140 people were on board and as many as 83 of these may have died, though 50 bodies were ultimately recovered.
In the early 1990s, Communism in Albania collapsed and strict border controls started to fail. This led to waves of migration, especially to Italy because it is so close. There was a lot of racist, Islamophobic and alarmist rhetoric in the media about barbarian hordes and some people even compared it to the 1480 invasion. In 1997, Albanian society was in crisis thanks to several massive pyramid schemes. The government imposed a state of emergency and this in turn sparked popular unrest and led a renewed spike in emigration.
In an effort to discourage these unwelcome visitors, Italy adopted a policy of boarding vessels before they landed, creating a de facto blockade. The Navy denies it deliberately capsized the Kateri, but it is a reminder of how we consider desperate migrants to be annoying and worthless, even more so now than then. So far in 2023, more than 2,500 migrants have been lost at sea in the Mediterranean.
