... REGION: Central Greece ... Prefecture: Etoloakarnania
... / Nafpaktos \ ...

Leaving Messolongi and passing beyond Andirrion the road runs a field's length from the sea, and for a brief period affords a long view right down the Gulf of Corinth. At 48km (30 miles) is Nafpaktos, a charming little town (ca 10,000 inhab.) with a good beach. The picturesque, mainly Venetian, Castle, from which ramparts descend to enclose the little Harbour, recalls its medieval past when it was known in the West as Lepanto. The plateia (square), shaded by jacaranda trees, looks across the Gulf to Mt Panakhaikon. Here in 1571 the Turkish admiral fitted out before the decisive Battle of Lepanto, fought in fact off the Echinades. The allied fleet, under Don John of Austria, natural son of the Emp. Charles V, included contingents from Venice, Genoa, the Papal States, Spain, Sicily, and Naples. The Turks were assisted by the Bey of Alexandria and the Bey Algiers. The result was the overwhelming victory of Christendom and the Moslem sea-power suffered a blow from which it never recovered. The young Cervantes, creator of 'Don Quixote,' here lost the use of his left hand.
Ancient Nafpaktos, a town of the Ozolian Locrians, was taken in 455 by the Athenians. Here the established a colony of Messenians, who had been dispossessed by their Spartan conquerors. The place played an important part in the Peloponnesian War; it was successfully defended in 429 by Phormion and in 426 by Demosthenes against the Spartans, and became a base for the Sicilian expedition.