Otranto Cathedral

Romanesque cathedral with a 12th-century mosaic floor and the chapel of the 800 martyrs

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata, consecrated in 1088, is one of the great Romanesque churches of southern Italy. Its plain exterior gives no hint of the spectacle inside: a vast 12th-century mosaic floor covering the entire nave, transept, and apse. Created by the monk Pantaleone between 1163 and 1165, the mosaic depicts a Tree of Life teeming with biblical scenes, zodiacal symbols, mythological creatures, knights, peasants, and King Arthur — making this the earliest known reference to Arthurian legend in Italian art.

To the right of the apse is the Chapel of the Martyrs, where the bones of the 800 inhabitants killed in the 1480 Ottoman siege are displayed behind glass. The grisly tableau is a memorial to one of the darkest episodes in Salentine history. The cathedral also has a beautiful crypt with 42 columns supporting the choir above, said to be reused Roman and Byzantine spolia.

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When Ottoman forces sacked Otranto in August 1480, around 800 inhabitants who refused to convert to Islam were beheaded on the Hill of Minerva just outside town. Their skulls and bones now line the glass cases of the cathedral's Chapel of the Martyrs — one of the most visceral relic displays in Europe.