Otranto is a city of the Province of Lecce, Apulia, Southern Italy, situated in a fertile region, and once famous for its breed of horses. It was an ancient Greek colony, which, in the wars of Pyrrhus and of Hannibal, was against Rome. As it is the nearest port to the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, it was more important than Brindisi, under the Roman emperors. In the eighth century, it was for some time in the possession of Arichis, Duke of Benevento (758-87). Having come again under Byzantine rule, it was among the last cities of Apulia to surrender to Robert Guiscard (1068), and then became part of the Principality of Taranto. In the Middle Ages the Jews had a school there. In 1480 there occurred the sack of Otranto by the Turks, in which 12,000 men are said to have perished — among them, Bishop Stephen Pendinelli, who was sawn to death; the "valley of the martyrs" still recalls that dreadful event. On other occasions, as in 1537, the Turks landed at Otranto, but they were repulsed. In 1804, the city was obliged to harbour a French garrison that was established there to watch the movements of the English fleet; and in 1810, Napoleon gave Otranto in fief to Fouché.
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