Ortona
ORTONA A MARE, a small seaport and episcopal see of the Abruzzi, Italy, in the province of Chieti, 12 m. direct E. of that town and 105 m. by rail S.S.E. of Ancona. Pop. (1901) 8667 (town); 15,523 (commune). It is situated on a promontory 230 ft. above sea-level, and connected with the port below by a wire-rope railway. From the ruined castle magnificent views to the south as far as the Punta di Penna can be obtained.
The cathedral has been restored at various timeSj but preserves a fine portal of 131 2 by a local artist, Nicolo Mancini. At one side of it is the Palazzo de Pirris with five pointed windows.
The town occupies the site of the ancient Ortona, a seaport of the Frentani; it lay on the Roman coast-road, which here turned inland to Anxanum (Lanciano), 10 m. to the S. The town suffered much from the ravages of the Turks, who laid it in ruins in 1566, and also from frequent earthquakes.
For discoveries in the neighbourhood see A. de Nino in Notizie degli Scavi (1888), 646. (T. As.} ORTZEN, GEORG, BARON VON (1829- ), German poet and prose-writer, was born at Brunn in Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He served as an officer of Prussian hussars (1850-1855), entered the consular service and after employment at New York (1879) and Constantinople (18S0) was appointed to Marseilles (1881), and then to Christiania (1889), retiring in 1892. He pubUshed about thirty volumes, mostly of lyrics and aphorisms, including Gedichte (3rd ed. 1861), Aus den Kdmpfcn des Lebens (186S), Deutsche Trdiime, dcutsche Siege (1876), Epigramme und Epiloge in Prosa (1880), Es war ein Traum (1902). His Erlebnisse mid Studien in der Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1875) appeared under the pseudonym Ludwig Robert, and Nacht (Stuttgart, 1899), a collection of sonnets, under that of Stephen Ervesy.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
