Skip to content
ENITSign in

Cattedrale di Otranto

Otranto Cathedral

Tree of Life floor mosaic, 800 martyrs' chapel, twelfth-century pavement, easternmost cathedral.

Photograph · Cattedrale di Otranto

At a glance

Otranto Cathedral facts that matter

Names, makers, dates, and context before the story opens up.

Italian nameCattedrale di Otranto
What it isChurch
WhereOtranto, Puglia
Known forTree of Life floor mosaic, 800 martyrs' chapel, twelfth-century pavement, easternmost cathedral

The story

What you're looking at

A single monk laid the Tree of Life across Otranto's entire cathedral floor in the 1160s, mixing Adam, Arthur and Alexander in one mosaic world. The chapel of the eight hundred martyrs of 1480 keeps their bones in plain view.

Verified details

Each statement below is linked to the record or institution that supports it.

Otranto Cathedral, formally the Basilica Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata, is a cathedral church in Otranto whose architectural fabric, pavement mosaic, crypt, martyrs’ relic context and bell tower require separate treatment. It is not simply an art museum or a single mosaic room.1,2

The Ministry’s cultural catalogue states that the original pavement mosaic is entirely preserved and extends through the nave, presbytery and apse. Its scale makes it an architectural surface spanning the cathedral’s liturgical space, not an isolated object that can be understood apart from the building.1

The Ministry catalogue records a martyrs’ relic-display context in the cathedral: relics are kept in seven large cabinets, and a stone associated by tradition with the martyrdom is preserved behind the marble altar. This is an institutional and devotional context, not a substitute for a critical reconstruction of the 1480 events or an independent relic-provenance finding.1

A 2026 cultural-heritage authorization records completion of archaeometric analyses on the cathedral pavement mosaic, requested by the Archdiocese of Otranto. The municipality also describes continuing safeguarding actions for the mosaic. These records establish active research and care, but do not prove a current completed conservation outcome or a particular visitor condition.2,3

Sources and citations (3)
  1. Catalogo Generale dei Beni CulturaliChiesa Cattedrale di OtrantoCathedral recordRead source
  2. Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Brindisi, Lecce e TarantoAuthorization for completion of archaeometric analyses on the Cathedral pavement mosaicAuthorization descriptionRead source
  3. Comune di OtrantoUn incontro presso il Museo Castromediano di Lecce dedicato al mosaico nella contemporaneitàMunicipal preservation contextRead source

Plan your visit

Before you go

Booking
Walk-up friendly

Find it

Where to find Otranto Cathedral

Get directionsGoogle MapsApple Maps