In 291 days Patron saint festival
14 August 2027
Saturday 14 August
On 14 August Otranto remembers its patrons: some eight hundred prisoners beheaded in 1480 for refusing to renounce their faith, after the Turks stormed the town.
The patrons of Otranto are Saint Antonio Primaldo and his companions, the martyrs of Otranto, and their date is 14 August.
It is the exact date of what they commemorate. The Turks took the town on 11 August 1480, slaughtering the population; three days later some eight hundred male prisoners were beheaded for refusing to renounce the Christian faith. The same sack destroyed the monastery of San Nicola di Casole, where Basilian monks had assembled the largest library in the West of that time.
Other events within 20 km around the same days.
Places to see before or after the feast. All 2 places in Otranto →
Consecrated in 1088, it houses the relics of eight hundred martyrs and a monumental 12th-century floor mosaic.
The Aragonese fortress that named the first Gothic novel, written by a man who never saw it.
Otranto Cathedral · Castello aragonese
Burrata di Andria
24 places to stay · top rated: Palazzo Ducale Venturi - Luxury Hotel & Wellness 9.7 · Hotel Bellavista - Boutique Hotel 9.4
Next up: The martyrs of Otranto, Saturday 14 August
Nearest airport: Brindisi, 73 km away
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
