The town lies in an inlet on the western coast of the Otranto Channel. Ancient Hydruntum was founded by the Greeks and through-out antiquity it was a busy trading town, thanks to its position and its port. During the Middle Ages Otranto became even more important as a mercantile port, but the mid-fifteenth century marked the beginning of a long period of decline, to which the repeated, violent Turkish incursions also contributed, and its golden age drew to close.The cathedral, founded towards the end of
the eleventh century and completed halfway through the following century and completed halfway through the following century, has a majestic interior decorated with an exceptional twelfth-century mosaic floor, precious historic works including the Splendid Tree of Life, various Romanesque frescoes ad the magnificent crypt.The Matari chapel commemorates the massacre perpetrated in 1480 by Turks, who occupied the town and shortly thereafter decapitated its bishop, the priests and many of its residents right in the church, while 800 other citizens were beheaded on the neighboring Minerva Hill. Its castle was built in a dominant position by the Arogonese over the site of an existing Swabian fortification, and it has three massive round corner towers.





















