Untitled document Utràntu, this is its name in local dialect, has a rich history of conflicts and occupancies because its position is so much exposed to the east. It was already inhabited in the Paleolithic but the
Messapi, a population that lived in the Salento from the iron age whose origin are still mysterious ,have made this city a civil society. Then it was taken by the Roman Empire and, thank to the latter, the city lived a period of commercial wealth and hand-crafted wealth. During the Middle Ages the port became of paramount importance to businesses shipping between East and West. Otranto was subject to a number of domains by the side of Swabians Aragoneses, Byzantines and Normans but in the 1480 the Turks captured the city and they put down the cult of the Christian religion with the blood. Afterwards Otranto became
Dukedom of the kingdom of Naples during the Napoleonic Age, it returned to enjoy of its splendor and its wealth. Among his artistic beauty there is the
Cathedral of the Annunziata, it was consecrated in 1088 and built on a Roman domus. In this church there are many tracks that remember us the historical memory of this land; the Byzantine art emerges of the wall painting of the crypt, the art Gothic -Arab(fifteenth century) is visible in the rose window of sixteen rays that is presents on the facade who hosts a portal with gable roof of the Baroque period. Finally the antependium is the result of the Neapolitan jeweller’s craft of the XVIII century. There are many other magical surprises that this land offers, we can only discover them.
