Marcantonio Bragadìn (Mark Antony Bragadìn) (1523-1571)
If this story was happened in some English-speaking Country, there are hundreds of books and movies to tell it, but it's almost unknown to Italian themselves, so by way of example I’ll take some famous Hollywood blockbusters.
On this day, August 17, 1571, Marcantonio Bragadìn, governor of the island of Cyprus, was horribly martyred.
Since 1473, the Republic of Venice ruled the island of Cyprus. The Ottoman Empire, that both traded and conflicted with the so-called Italian sea-republics (at that time Venezia/Venice and Genova/Genoa), was spreading across the Aegean Sea and the Balkans; of course it couldn't allow a Western domain so close to the end of the “silk-route”, so the Sublime Porte (another name for the Ottoman Empire) planned an invasion of the island.
Meanwhile, the Cyprus new governor, Marcantonio Bragadìn, appointed just in 1569, built new walls in Famagusta, capital of the island, to withstand the new artilleries, that was changing the way of waging war.
Just one year later, on 1 July 1570, a massive army of about 70,000-100,000 men and 200 cannons tried to disembark at Limassol, but it was repelled. A few days later, on 18 July, the main force managed landing attempt was successful in Nicosia.
The city fell in just two months; the local commander's head was sent to Bragadìn; the siege began on next September 1570, and it lasted until July 1571.
More reinforcements had reached the Turkish army, up to a total of 250,000 men, 1,500 cannons and 150 ships, the latter to stop any possible supply of men, food and ammo.
The Venetian garrison of about 6,000 men, more the locals, bravely resisted beyond imagination, by refusing the capitulation, with just two small supplies of Venetian ships, that broke the naval blockade.
Anyway, on the following July 1571, the Turks opened a breach in the walls, and the besieged, with just 700 men able to fight, out of supplies and ammo, surrendered to the Turks, with the promise to be able to leave towards Candia (now Crete, at the time also ruled by Venetians), and that the civilians would have been spared.
Just as in the book and movie “The Last of the Mohicans”, when Colonel Munro and his retiring column of soldiers and civilians was attacked, despite agreements with the French Commander, Mustafa Pasha, Turks' commander, failed to honor the agreement: as soon it is signed, he had the Venetian military commander and a coloned killed. And they were lucky, very lucky.
The city of Famagusta was plundered by the Ottoman troops, and most of the civilians were slaughtered.
The governor Bragadìn was taken alive: his nose and ears were cut off, then he was locked in a cage for twelve days, with little food and water, exposed to Turks' mockery.
On August 17, 1571, he was forced to walk twice around the outer perimeter of the walls, while he was whipped, hang to a mast on a ship, to show to the sailors and slaved survivors their commander's fate. Finally, he was led in Famagusta's main square, where he was skinned alive, after he refused to renounce his faith and to convert to Islam.
His stuffed skin was brought to Istambul, capital of the Ottoman empire. It was later eventfully taken by a Venetian Christian slave (yes, the Turks made several raids to get slaves in the Mediterranean Sea until the 19th century), and brought back to Venice, where it lies since then in the Church of St. John and Paul in Venice.
Is this the end of the story? No, just as on another movie (and the real history), 300, with the sacrifice of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, and the following Greek paybacks of Salamis and Plataea battles, less than two months later a powerful Christian fleet, involving the Republics of Venice and Genoa, the Spanish Empire, the Papal States, and some Italian states, inflicted a severe defeat to the Turkish fleet in the waters of Lepanto (Nafpaktos-Ναύπακτος, now a Greek town), freeing many slaves oarsmen from the Turkish galleys, by preventing a possible invasion of Europe. Two of the Venetian galleys were in command of two Bragadin’s relatives.
Bust of Marcantonio Bragadin
The island of Cyprus in the 16th century
The city of Famagusta, ruled by Venice
The Lion of St. Mark, Venetian symbol, still on the Famagusta’s walls
Venetian domains in the Mediterranean Sea, 16th century
The soege of Famagusta, Cyprus
The torture of Marcantonio Bragadin
The torture of Marcantonio Bragadin
Lala Mustafa Pasha, Turks’ Commander in Cyprus
The tomb of Marcantonio Bragadin, Venezia (Venice)
Google Maps, Famagusta Stronghold, Cyprus
Google Maps, Church of St. John and Paul, Venezia (Venice)
Google Maps, Battle of Lepanto
All the links to Wikipedia and Google Maps.
