Francesco Zurolo

Francesco Zurolo, also called Francesco Zurlo, in some ancient transcriptions Francisci Zuroli or Francesco Zurulo (first half of the 15th century – Otranto, 11 August 1480), he was an Italian baron of Oppido Lucano and feudal lord of Pietragalla and Casalaspro (it was a village that arose near Pietragalla).

He was a member of the noble House of Zurolo or Zurlo family.

He was also the military leader and captain of the city of Otranto, together with Giovanni Antonio Delli Falconi, during the siege of the Ottoman Turks, during the early stages of the Ottoman conquest of the city; he died heroically with his soldiers shortly after a breach in the walls, where he was killed by the Turkish soldiers.

By his will, he was the posthumous founder of the convent complex of Santa Maria del Gesù known as Sant'Antonino in Oppido Lucano and also by the will of one of his daughters, Caterina Zurolo, who fulfilled the wishes of her father after he died in battle. The complex was built in 1482.

Biography Zurolo family The chronicle of the Zurolo family has been recorded since the earliest times and has enjoyed, with varying fortunes, nobility in the Kingdom of Naples and in particular in Campania, Apulia, Salento (a province of Apulia), Basilicata, and Molise.

Personal life in the Kingdom of Naples Francesco Zurolo was the son of Giacomo Zurolo and Francesca Brancaccio. He had brothers and sisters, among whom were: Caterina, Ettore, Beatrice, Pietro, Elisabetta and Lucrezia.

Zurolo married Cassandra Caracciolo, with whom he had three daughters: Lucrezia, Caterina, and Ughetta.

Zurolo was feudal lord and baron of Pietragalla, Casalaspro, a village that arose near Pietragalla, and Oppido Lucano.

War of Otranto Pictured here is the southern part of Baia dei Turchi, near the Alimini Lakes in Apulia, where the waters are shallower; this is where Ahmed Pasha's first Ottoman invasion troops landed. It is located a few kilometers north of Otranto and is currently protected by the FAI.

Background to the War of Otranto During the Ottoman Empire's period of expansion, Mehmet II shortly after conquering Constantinople, decided to invade the Christian kingdoms of Western Europe. Between 1476 and 1478, various Turkish forces were sent into northern Italy, including raids into Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Istria, then part of the dominions of the Republic of Venice. Peace was then established between the two nations in 1479.

Between May and August 1480, a new Turkish fleet was sent to conquer the island of Rhodes and the Southern Sporades, led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha. The Knights of St. John, however, managed to repel the siege, and the invading army was forced to retreat again.

Despite the various failures of the Ottoman forces, a new army of Turkish soldiers almost immediately set out from the Albanian coastal city of Vlora and landed in Apulia.

In anticipation of the Ottoman invasion of Apulia, Zurolo was appointed by Ferrante of Aragon (commonly called Ferdinand I of Naples) as commander of the square (or commander of the garrison) of the city of Otranto, together with another captain, Giovanni Antonio Delli Falconi, who brought with him a handful of his most faithful followers from the city of Pulsano. thumb The facade of the cathedral basilica of Santa Maria Annunziata, where the Otrantines took refuge during the Turkish siege, was violated by the attackers after the capture, with the destruction of the sacred frescoes except that of the Madonna, which once deconsecrated was transformed into a mosque. In 1481, after the liberation of Otranto by the troops of Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, in 1482 it was extensively remodeled and the facade rebuilt.

The Turkish invasion of Apulia and Otranto

At the end of July 1480, the invasion of Apulia was supposed to take place near Bari or Brindisi. The invaders landed in an area near the Alimini Lakes, now called Baia dei Turchi, in memory of that invasion. The invading army was supposed to besiege the city of Brindisi but the Turkish commander, warned of the weak defenses in Otranto, preferred to attack the latter coastal city.

Otranto was invaded on Friday, in the early hours of 28 July, by about 18,000 Turks, led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha, composed of an army of 150 warships, divided into: 90 galleys, 15 maones, 40 schooners and other ships, with them also the agha of the janissaries and the bailo of Negroponte. The defending army had at its disposal about 5.000 men, practically all the inhabitants of the city, poorly armed, and a small group of mercenaries (there were about 300 Spanish mercenaries and 50 Italian knights) all commanded by Captain Francesco Zurolo, finally there were few and antiquated weapons at their disposal and an obsolete defensive system.

On 29 July, near the village near the city, the first looting began and subsequently the first clashes with the soldiers of the Otrantina garrison, who almost immediately gave the order to abandon it and retreat with the provisions (foodstuffs of various kinds) inside the fortification, whose doors were then closed to the enemy. thumb In the fourth chapel on the left, called the chapel of the Blessed Martyrs of Otranto, in the church of Santa Caterina in Forniello, are the remains of the martyrs of Otranto, transferred under the altar, between 1900 and 1901. The work depicts the martyrdom of the 813 Otrantines, edited by the Lecce painter Luigi Scorrano, taken from the painting by Giovanni Bellini, commissioned by Mehmet II, known as the Conqueror.

Failed diplomacy Ahmet sent several mediators to ask for the surrender of Otranto, but the people rose up against the first mediator who avoided lynching, a certain Turcman or Turciman: a citizen of Otranto out of contempt threw the keys of the city on the seashore; other sources state that in reality it was the two captains who threw the keys into the well of the city, after having refused the diplomatic offer of unconditional surrender. Other mediators managed to escape death and communicated to the Pasha the refusal of Otranto to convert and surrender. Another messenger, perhaps the bearer of an ultimatum, did not even manage to get close to Otranto because he was pierced by an arrow at the gates of the city.

It seems that Gedik himself approached the walls of Otranto with a ship, but was almost killed by a cannon shot, exploded with orders from commander Zurolo.

Attack of Otranto Ahmed Pasha, after having failed all diplomatic attempts, gave the order to bombard the enemy walls for 3 days, on 9, 10 and 11 August, during which the walls were only slightly reinforced by the defenders.

During those days of the siege, nearly seven-eighths (350 soldiers) of the Otranto militia scaled the city walls and fled, along with a small number of other terrified citizens. The remaining fifty soldiers fought alongside the inhabitants who stayed behind, pouring boiling oil and water onto the Ottomans attempting to scale the ramparts under cannon fire.

Despite the Turks' vast numerical superiority, the defenders fought with courage and faith, encouraged by the commander himself. During these 3 days, the Turkish soldiers who were captured by the defenders were killed by slaughter, some hanged and others impaled, on the orders of Zurolo, to scare the attackers. The Turks then managed to break through the walls with their batteries and open a gap at a point, where the door called La Porticella was located. On the day of the last battle, when the invaders managed to open the breach (see siege) in the walls, despite having been seriously wounded in the arm during an assault the previous day, Francesco rushed armed together with his son and other brave men in an attempt to repel the invaders, dying shortly thereafter.

Giovanni Antonio Delli Falconi died the following day, still in defense of the city. left The monument to the martyrs of Otranto present in the homologous castle.

The invasion of Otranto One night during the early stages of the siege, the citizens gathered in the cathedral, led by Ladislao De Marco, and decided in a joint session to resist to the very end. When the city's defenses collapsed, some of them attempted to form a defensive line, but it too quickly gave way, and the majority of the civilians gathered in the cathedral.

Archbishop Stefano Agercolo (or Agricoli) de Pendinellis, along with the priests and many male citizens of Otranto, did not surrender upon the Turks' arrival in the city but instead took refuge in the cathedral; just before the Turks burst into the building, De Pendinellis administered the Eucharist to those present. When Gedik stormed the building with his mounted soldiers and demanded that the inhabitants of Otranto renounce their faith in Christ, they flatly refused to do so. The Archbishop, seated on the altar throne, was the first to die; after telling an enemy soldier not to take Christ's name in vain and urging him to convert, he was beheaded by a scimitar blow, and the other priests followed him in death shortly thereafter. Subsequently, Pendinelli's body was hacked to pieces, and the Turks impaled his head on a pike and paraded it through the city streets.

Many other residents of Otranto who refused to renounce their faith were also confined in the cathedral that day and throughout the night, left to reflect once more on the Turkish commander's offer; subsequently, some women from the town were sexually assaulted by enemy soldiers. The monk Giovanni Momplesi—who had defected to the Turkish side during the invasion and was acting as a mediator and interpreter for the invaders—was once again called upon by the enemy commander to convey the demand that they renounce their faith.

The martyrdom of the 813 people of Otranto The following day, Gedik ordered a roundup of all the surviving citizens, marching them to Minerva Hill—now known as the Hill of the Martyrs—in groups of fifty. Chained together, they were given one final choice: beheading or apostasy—an act that violated Islamic law (Sharia). All 813 martyrs died (various historians estimate the number at 800).

The first citizen to be killed was the elderly tailor Antonio Pezzulla, known as Il Primaldo, who openly shouted against the invaders that he would die for Jesus Christ. Among the various Otrantians, Macario Nachira, a cultured Basilian monk from an ancient and noble Salentina family from Uggiano la Chiesa. The massacre took place before the eyes of the young men and women who would later be enslaved.

Their bodies remained unburied from the time of their beheading until September 8, 1481, when military forces led by the Duke of Calabria, Alfonso II of Naples—and supported by the papal fleet—reconquered the coastal town.

The fate of Puglia and the rest of the city On Gedik's orders, the cathedral was first turned into a stable—an act of contempt—and subsequently converted into a mosque. The Monastery of San Nicola di Casole (located just outside the walls of Otranto, near a hamlet that took its name) was then looted and partially destroyed. Furthermore, a military garrison was stationed there; the soldiers would set out from the area to plunder nearby hamlets.

According to historical accounts, a total of 12,000 people were killed and 5,000 enslaved—including victims from the surrounding territories of the Salento peninsula and the area around Otranto—during the initial stages of the Turkish invasion.

After the desecration of the cathedral, some boys, girls, and elderly women were enslaved, while small children and infants were massacred. The slaves were then deported to the Albanian city of Vlora, from where they were shipped to Anatolia.

Gedik returned to Albania, leaving behind a garrison of some 4,000 soldiers, who rebuilt the walls of the city, improving the defenses and the moat.

Ottoman raids continued in other neighboring areas of Apulia, until their reconquest by Neapolitan troops the following year.

The reconquest of the city and Apulia After the death of Mehmet II on 3 May 1481, events were precipitated by the Ottoman occupation.

After the Neapolitan reconquest, the Otrantines almost immediately got to work restoring and strengthening the city walls. They then renovated the Otranto Cathedral, which had been desecrated. The monasteries of the Dominican Fathers and of the Franciscans were later rebuilt, and, at the end of the 14th century, that of the Capuchin Fathers. Unfortunately, the monastery of San Nicola di Casole was never restored after being sacked and destroyed; its ruins still stand. Other minor religious and civil structures were subsequently renovated.thumb Fresco depicting Zurolo in the convent and church of Santa Maria del Gesù, commonly known as Sant'Antonio.

Different versions of his death and that of his son There are several versions of hisdeath: in one, he was captured by the Turks and sawn in two; he dies fighting in the defense of the walls probably mutilated, a fact that would have given rise to the first version.

The reprisal was particularly bloody: 800 (813 circa) people were beheaded after 15 days of resistance: commander Zurolo fell almost immediately after a breach was made in the city, on the bastions of the walls during the enemy's last assault. Shortly after, captain Delli Falconi also died.

Even on the fate of the son the sources disagree: according to some he fell heroically together with his father, according to others he was taken prisoner to Turkey, where they made him deny Christ. Francesco Zurolo's son is mistakenly confused with another unknown knight, who died together with the captain himself, since the brave leader had no male children.

Burial In the church of Santa Caterina a Formiello in Naples there are two display cases containing some mortal remains-skulls of the heroic defenders of Otranto - are on display, under the altar of the fourth chapel, their number is 240, in them there are also those of the two brave captains recovered and transferred (from Otranto to Naples) by will of Alfonso II d'Aragon.

Posthumous sponsor

Dedications

There is a fresco created by the Italian artist Giovanni Todisco, in around 1611, in one of the internal rooms of the convent of Santa Maria del Gesù known as Sant'Antonio, in Oppido Lucano, representing the baron and knight Francesco Zurolo with the halberd held in the right hand and with a scroll in the left, wearing late medieval plate-type armor and helmet. In the historic center of Otranto, near the Romanesque cathedral, the streets are almost all dedicated to the heroes of the Battle of Otranto. Among these there is also one dedicated to "Francesco Zurlo – captain 1480".

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