Ortona is a coastal town and municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italian region of Abruzzo, with some 23,000 inhabitants. In 1943 Ortona was the site of the bloody Battle of Ortona, known as "Western Stalingrad". A patron saint of Ortona is Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose relics were brought to Ortona in the 13th century by a sailor and are kept in the Cathedral of Saint Thomas.