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Battle of Otranto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Battle of Otranto | |||||
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In 1480 and 1481 the Italian city and fort of Otranto were held by Ottoman troops.
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On July 28, 1480 an Ottoman fleet of between 70 and 200 ships arrived near the the Italian city Otranto. Possibly these troops came from Rhodes. On 11 August the city walls were breached by cannons. The garrison was killed.
A razzia was held to round up the male citizens. Archbishop Stefano Agricoli was killed in the cathedral. The citizen were given the choice to convert to Islam or die. 800 Citizens who refused were taken to the Hill of the Minerva, today called Hill of the Martyrdoms, and beheaded. Bishop Stephen Pendinelli was sawn to death. A church was used as a stable.
Most of the Ottoman troops left, leaving a garrison of 800 infantry and 500 cavalry behind to defend Otranto.
Since it was only 28 years after the fall of Constantinopel, there was some fear that Rome would suffer the same fate. Plans were made for the Pope and the Romans to to evacuate Rome. Pope Sixtus IV repeated his 1471 call for a crusade. Several Italian city-states, Hungary and France responded positively to this. The Republic of Venice did not, as it had signed an expensive peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1479.
In 1481 an army was raised by king Ferdinand I of Naples and king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. It was led by Alphonso II of Naples.
The city was recaptured in two attacks, the first on 23 August 1481 and the second on 10 September 1481. In the two battles the city was destroyed.
The number citizens had decreased from 20.000 to 8.000. Out of fear of another attack, many of these 8.000 left the city.
The famous Monastero di San Nicholas di Casole, which accommodated one of the richer libraries of Europe, had been destroyed.
Some of the remains of the 800 martyrs are today stored in a cathedral and in the church of Caterina Saint to Formiello in Naples.
The vicissitudes of the battle came narrated in novel shape from Maria Short, in the book the hour of all.
- http://www.otrantopoint.com/uk/history_otranto.html
- http://www.zum.de/whkmla/military/15cen/otranto14801481.html
- http://www.borghitalia.it/html/borgo_en.php?codice_borgo=138
- http://www.castellipuglia.org/en/otranto.html
- http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmh103.html#081
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