Otranto is one of the biggest ancient settlements in the Salento (Puglia), in the easternmost part of the Italian peninsula. This location has always affected the city’s history, which has a stratified system of defence. As a result of the Turkish invasion of 1480, the city was completely destroyed.
The system of fortifications that rings the old town of the city of Otranto (Puglia, Italy) conserves the still visible traces of structures belonging to various historical periods, attesting to the evolution of the settlement’s defensive system from the Messapian period (fifth century BC) to the Aragonese period (sixteenth century). As part of a recent urban renewal project targeting the area of the moats, new archaeological, historic and architectural investigations were conducted.