The mosaic floor with the tree of life
Otranto, the easternmost town in Italy, faces the Strait of Otranto, where the Adriatic meets the Ionian Sea, with the mountains of Albania visible on clear days. Its old town of white houses, enclosed by walls and dominated by the Aragonese Castle, overlooks a small harbour with turquoise water. Its history is marked by a tragic event: in 1480 the Ottoman Turks besieged and conquered the town, and about 800 inhabitants who refused to convert to Islam were beheaded on the hill of Minerva. The Martyrs of Otranto were proclaimed saints in 2013, and their skulls and bones are preserved in glass cases in a chapel of the cathedral, a deeply moving sight.
The cathedral holds one of the greatest treasures of medieval art in Italy: an immense mosaic floor covering the whole nave, aisles and apse, made between 1163 and 1165 by a monk named Pantaleone. At its centre a huge Tree of Life, resting on two elephants, branches out to the apse, and around it unfold an extraordinary encyclopaedia of the medieval world: scenes from the Old Testament, Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, the months of the year with the signs of the zodiac, fantastic animals, monsters, the legend of Alexander the Great and even King Arthur riding a goat.
Tip: the mosaic is best seen from the back of the church; in summer, the beaches south of the town, such as the Baia dei Turchi, are splendid.
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