Otranto and the mosaic of the tree of life

At the eastern tip of Italy, where the Adriatic meets the Ionian Sea, Otranto Cathedral holds one of the most enigmatic masterpieces of the European Middle Ages. The entire floor of the nave, the aisles and the presbytery is covered by an immense mosaic, made between 1163 and 1165. The inscriptions record that the work was commissioned by Archbishop Jonathan and executed by the priest Pantaleone, perhaps linked to the nearby Greek monastery of San Nicola di Casole. The result is a true illustrated encyclopaedia of medieval knowledge.

The tree that holds up the world

The mosaic is organised around a great tree that runs through the nave from the entrance to the altar. Its roots rest on the backs of two elephants, animals that in medieval bestiaries symbolised strength, chastity and wisdom. From its branches spring dozens of scenes and figures, as if the whole history of the world sprouted from a single trunk. The image recalls the tree of life in Genesis, but also the cosmic tree found in many traditions, which joins the underworld, the earth and the sky.

Along the trunk follow biblical episodes: the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise, Cain and Abel, the flood with the building of Noah's ark, the tower of Babel. The reading proceeds from the entrance towards the altar, that is, from the fall towards redemption, guiding the faithful along a path that is both physical and spiritual. Walking over the mosaic meant crossing the history of salvation with one's own steps.

Kings, heroes and monsters

Beside the sacred stories appear surprising figures. Alexander the Great is depicted rising to heaven in a chariot drawn by griffins, following a legend widespread in the Middle Ages, a symbol of human pride seeking to overcome its limits. Not far off is a king riding an animal, accompanied by the inscription «Rex Arturus»: it is one of the oldest depictions of King Arthur, which probably reached southern Italy through the Normans, who ruled these lands at the time.

The floor is also crowded with fantastic creatures: double-tailed sirens, centaurs, dragons and animals from the bestiaries. The cycles of time are present too, with the twelve months accompanied by farm labours and the signs of the zodiac, set in circular roundels. Every element had, for the medieval viewer, a moral and allegorical meaning that today we can reconstruct only in part, and which has inspired many symbolic and even esoteric readings.

The memory of the martyrs

Otranto Cathedral also preserves a dramatic page of history. In 1480 the city was besieged and taken by Ottoman troops led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha. According to tradition, about eight hundred inhabitants who refused to renounce the Christian faith were put to death on the Minerva hill. Their remains are kept in a chapel of the cathedral, inside large glass cabinets; in 2013 the Catholic Church proclaimed them saints.

Pantaleone's mosaic, with its interweaving of the Bible, classical myth, Breton legend and astral symbols, shows how open the culture of southern Italy was in the twelfth century, a crossroads of Latin, Greek and Eastern worlds. Walking slowly beside it means passing through the universe as a churchman imagined it almost nine hundred years ago, in which every creature had a place and a meaning.