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Saint Mary of the Annunciation Cathedral
The Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Mary of the Annunciation, was built in the 12th century on the site of earlier settlements dating back to the Messapian, Roman, and Early Christian periods. It was consecrated on August 1st, 1088, by the Papal Legate Roffredo, under Pope Urban II. It is the largest cathedral in the Salento region. The façade, with its sloping sides and two single-light windows, features a central Renaissance rose window, commissioned by Archbishop Serafino da Squillace shortly after the city was liberated from Turkish rule. The city had been under Turkish occupation for 300 days between 1480 and 1481, during which time the Cathedral was converted into a mosque.
Basilica-shaped with a Latin cross layout (53 meters long and 25 meters wide), the Cathedral is divided into three naves by 14 marble columns with capitals, abaci, and echinus, supporting a series of arches. It contains a large bema and three semicircular apses. In 1482, the right apse was enlarged to create the Chapel of the Martyrs of Otranto. The roof is supported by trusses and covered with a gilded coffered ceiling, commissioned—along with a triumphal Baroque arch and the arrangement of the relics of the Holy Martyrs of Otranto into seven marble reliquaries—by Archbishop Francesco Maria De Aste.
Mosaic
The mosaic floor, created between 1163 and 1165 during the reign of William the Bad, was commissioned by Archbishop Gionata and bears the signature of the priest Pantaleone. It is the only complete Norman-era mosaic floor still preserved in Italy and depicts a gigantic arbor vitae (Tree of Life), a true medieval summa expressed through images. It includes allegorical figures such as the Ascension of Alexander the Great or King Arthur, Old Testament themes like the Tower of Babel, the Great Flood, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, a medieval calendar, representations of Heaven and Hell.
The crypt (11th century) features three semicircular apses and forty-eight bays supported by more than seventy elements including columns, half-columns, and pillars, many of which were reused from ancient and early medieval buildings, offering a wide variety of decorative styles. To the right of the altar is the fresco of the Black Madonna “Odegitria.”
Commissioned in 1163 by the Archbishop of Otranto, Gionata, the mosaic was executed by the monk Pantaleone. “His intention was to reproduce in images what his fellow monks taught and studied in the monastery,” writes Don Grazio Gianfreda. “He shows that East and West are distinctions required by time and history; they do not represent a clash of two cultures, but rather the synthesis of a single culture that knows how to preserve its identity even through the transformations imposed by events.” Pantaleone illustrates the historical context of Otranto during those years, where Christianity and Judaism coexisted, along with various cultures.
The mosaic was crafted with multicolored tesserae made from very hard local limestone. The stylistic tendency is Romanesque, with some Byzantine elements. The mosaic extends along the central nave, the semi-naves, the apse, and the presbytery. Pantaleone intended to symbolize the human struggle between good and evil, between virtue and vice. “The mosaic mantle must be read—indeed, leafed through—page by page, carefully,” Don Grazio says, as if it were a great stone book.
Central Nave
A towering “Tree of Life” rises at the center, with its branches populated by all manner of figures: biblical, mythological, historical, animals, angels, devils, and monstrous creatures. In the Old Testament, this tree symbolized God’s immortality. “Everything originates from the tree,” Don Grazio continues; “the tree is the root, the source of all manifestations of life.” Here, one can clearly see King Arthur, Cain and Abel, the months and zodiac signs, the Tower of Babel, Diana and the wounded deer, the Chessboard of Being, Alexander the Great riding two winged griffins, and the two great elephants supporting the tree, among others. In the presbytery, Pantaleone encapsulated all of human history. It begins with the Temptation of Adam and Eve in Eden and continues with ten wheels depicting bestiary scenes, concluding with four medallions portraying the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon, the Mermaid, the Leopard, and the Ram.
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