Orta San Giulio

Orta San Giulio is a town and comune (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of Turin and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Novara.

The town itself is built on a promontory which juts out from the eastern bank of Lake Orta close to Isola San Giulio, an island which also falls within the municipal boundaries. The frazione Legro stands on the hill which rises behind the promontory, Corconio is some 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) further south, and again away from the lake, while Imola consists of a small number of dwellings between the two, but close to the lake on the road leading to Gozzano. The municipality borders on Pettenasco to the north, Miasino and Ameno to the east, Bolzano Novarese and Gozzano to the south, and San Maurizio d'Opaglio and Pella to the west across the lake.

It is well known for the nearby Sacro Monte, which is a site of pilgrimage and worship and, like the town itself and the island, is a popular destination for fairly small-scale tourism. In 2003, the Sacro Monte of Orta was inserted by UNESCO in the World Heritage List.

Isola San Giulio

Isola San Giulio or San Giulio Island (Italian: Isola di San Giulio) is an island within Lake Orta in Piedmont, northwestern Italy. The island is 275 metres (902 feet) long (north/south), and is 140 metres (459 feet) wide (east/west). The most famous building on the island is the Basilica di San Giulio close to which is the monumental old seminary (1840s). Since 1976 it has been transformed into a Benedictine monastery. The little island, just west of the lakeshore village of Orta San Giulio, has very picturesque buildings, and takes its name from a local patron saint (Julius of Novara), who lived in the second half of the 4th century.

History

In the 5th century, a small chapel (oratorium) was erected on the island, probably to commemorate the evangelizer Saint Julius, who had died there. From archaeological finds it is known that a new, bigger church already existed in the 6th century: here Filacrio, the bishop of Novara, asked to be buried. Around the same time, an octagonal building - probably a baptistery - was erected in the middle of the island. Every trace of it disappeared in the 19th century when the massive building of the seminary was built. In the 12th century a new romanesque basilica was built, thus altering the previous one to some extent.

Orta

Orta, formerly Kari Pazarı, is a town and district of Çankırı Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey.

References

Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. "Geographical information on Orta, Turkey". Retrieved 2008-03-13. 

A company of Turkish soldiers, the number varying by corps. A jannissary orta in the time of Suleiman comprised 196 men.

External links

Coordinates: 40°37′N 33°06′E / 40.617°N 33.100°E / 40.617; 33.100

Janissaries

The Janissaries (Ottoman Turkish: يڭيچرى‎ yeniçeri, meaning "new soldier") were elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and bodyguards. Sultan Murad I created the force in 1383. The number of Janissaries grew from 20,000 in 1575, to 49,000 (1591), dropped to a low of 17,000 (1648), then rebounded to 135,000 in 1826.

They began as an elite corps of slaves recruited from young Christian boys, and became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. By 1620 they were hereditary and corrupt and an impediment to reform. The corps was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 in the Auspicious Incident in which 6,000 or more were executed.

Origins

Some historians such as Patrick Kinross date the formation of the Janissaries to around 1365, during the rule of Orhan's son Murad I, the first sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The Janissaries became the first Ottoman standing army, replacing forces that mostly consisted of tribal warriors (ghazis) whose loyalty and morale were not always guaranteed.

Orta (disambiguation)

Orta may refer to:

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