text: In the summer of 1480, the Ottoman Empire invaded southern Italy, and laid siege to Otranto, finally capturing it on 11 August. This was their first outpost in Italy. According to a traditional account, more than 800 inhabitants were beheaded after the city had been captured.  The Martyrs of Otranto are still celebrated in Italy. A year later, the Ottoman garrison surrendered the city after a siege by Christian forces, uncertainty upon the death of sultan Mehmed II and the intervention of papal forces that were led by Paolo Fregoso of Genoa.
  Background and motive
  In 1479, the Ottomans proposed an alliance to Venice. The Signoria declined the request. However from Venetian sources, it can be inferred that the Signoria, through Battista Gritti, its new bailo in Istanbul, gave the sultan to understand that it would be his rights in seizing Brindisi, Taranto, and Otranto. While, it is impossible to say what extent such declarations contributed to Mehmed's decision to carry out his long-standing plan for a landing in Italy, he acted quickly and resolutely.
  Early in the summer of 1480, kapudan-i derya Gedik Ahmed Pasha received orders from Mehmed to cross the Strait of Otranto.