Nafpaktos, from the sea
1. The Ancient Beginnings
Náfpaktos, nestled on the north coast of the Corinthian Gulf, owes its name to the verb nafpaktéin — “to build ships.” The legend says that after the Trojan War, the Heracleidae (the descendants of Heracles) built their fleet here before crossing to the Peloponnese to reclaim their ancestral lands. Thus, the name itself already carries a memory of myth, migration, and naval enterprise.
By the 5th century BCE, Náfpaktos was a fortified city of the Ozolian Locrians, strategically controlling one of the narrowest passages of the gulf. Its position made it a valuable maritime base and an object of contention among Greek city-states. During the Peloponnesian War, it was seized by the Athenians (around 455 BCE), who used it as a key naval station. The Athenian general Phormion achieved one of the first major Athenian naval victories near Náfpaktos, defeating a much larger Peloponnesian fleet — an event Thucydides records with admiration.
After the Athenian defeat in the war, Náfpaktos changed hands several times. It later came under Aetolian control and became part of the Aetolian League, a federation of tribes that dominated central Greece during the Hellenistic period. During these centuries, the city thrived as a harbor and trading post. Its acropolis rose high above the sea — roughly where the present castle stands — and from its ramparts one could command both the entrance to the gulf and the approaches to western Greece.
2. The Roman and Byzantine Náfpaktos
When the Romans conquered Greece in the 2nd century BCE, Náfpaktos gradually lost its autonomy but retained its role as a regional port. The construction of the Via Egnatia across northern Greece and the expansion of Patras as a Roman colony shifted trade elsewhere, yet Náfpaktos remained a maritime community of fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. In the early Christian centuries, the city became part of the province of Achaia. Archaeological evidence indicates the existence of early basilicas and episcopal buildings, showing that it had become a bishopric by the 5th century CE. Under Byzantine rule, its fortunes revived. Its strategic location guarding the Corinthian Gulf — the inland sea connecting the Ionian to central Greece — made it a key naval base. Byzantine emperors fortified the city extensively; the surviving castle with its five ascending walls owes its main layout to this period.
By the 9th and 10th centuries, Náfpaktos had become the seat of the strategos (military governor) of the theme of Nikopolis. It was both a military and administrative center — a frontier city between the Byzantine heartlands and the western seas where Arab and later Norman raids were constant threats. Chronicles describe it as a “strong and beautiful city,” with a flourishing harbor and shipyards producing galleys for imperial use.
3. Frankish, Epirote, and Venetian Interludes
After the Fourth Crusade (1204) shattered the Byzantine Empire, Náfpaktos passed into the hands of the Despotate of Epirus, ruled by Greek princes of the Komnenos Doukas line. The city was then called Epaktos and served as a western stronghold of the Epirote state. In the 14th century, it became a pawn in the complex power struggles of western Greece — changing hands between the Epirotes, the Catalans of the Duchy of Athens, and eventually the Venetians.
Under Venetian control (1407–1499), Lepanto, as they called it, entered a period of prosperity. The Venetians strengthened the harbor, rebuilt parts of the walls, and made the city an important naval base and trading port between the Ionian and the Aegean. Merchants from across the Adriatic traded in its markets: oil, wine, silk, timber, and salt. Venetian nobles ruled from the castle, blending the elegance of Italian civic life with the hard pragmatism of a frontier garrison.
But prosperity came at a cost: the Ottoman Empire was expanding westward. After a prolonged siege in 1499, Sultan Bayezid II’s fleet captured Lepanto. The banner of St. Mark was lowered, and for more than three centuries the crescent flag flew above the castle towers.
4. The Ottoman Period and the Battle of Lepanto
Under Ottoman rule, Lepanto retained its strategic and economic importance. The Turks improved the castle fortifications and turned the port into a small naval arsenal. The population was mixed — Greeks, Turks, and a few Jews — engaged in fishing, shipbuilding, and trade. Christian churches were converted into mosques, though some, like the Church of St. Paraskevi, continued clandestinely to serve local Christians. Yet the name Lepanto would become immortal not because of everyday life, but because of one cataclysmic day — October 7, 1571. Off its coast, one of the most decisive naval battles in world history took place: the Battle of Lepanto. The Holy League, an alliance of Christian powers led by Don John of Austria and including Venice, Spain, and the Papal States, met the Ottoman fleet under Ali Pasha in a titanic clash of over 400 ships and 100,000 men.
The Christian victory was complete. Though it did not permanently end Ottoman control, it marked the first major defeat of the empire at sea and the turning point in the struggle for Mediterranean supremacy. The poet Cervantes, who fought in the battle and lost the use of his left hand, later immortalized it in literature, calling Lepanto “the greatest occasion that past ages have seen, nor can those to come hope to see the like.” The city, heavily damaged, remained under Ottoman rule but forever associated with that moment when the tide of history shifted upon its waves.
5. From Decline to Freedom
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Lepanto declined as a naval center. Its harbor silted, trade diminished, and its fortifications gradually fell into disrepair. Still, its position guarding the Corinthian Gulf kept it militarily relevant; Ottoman garrisons were stationed here throughout the period. In 1687, during the Morean War, the Venetians under Francesco Morosini briefly recaptured it, but the Ottomans soon regained control. When the Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821, Náfpaktos was initially liberated by local fighters, but Ottoman forces quickly retook it. For several years it was a contested stronghold between Greek and Turkish troops. Finally, in 1829, with the Treaty of Adrianople, Náfpaktos became part of the newly independent Greek state.
6. Modern Náfpaktos: Memory and Revival
In the 19th century, Náfpaktos slowly evolved from a war-scarred fortress town into a tranquil coastal settlement. Its walls, repaired here and there, stood as silent witnesses to centuries of conflict. The town’s narrow alleys climbed steeply to the castle, lined with stone houses and flowering courtyards. The small harbor — one of the most picturesque in Greece — became the heart of local life, filled with fishing boats and the echo of church bells. In the 20th century, Náfpaktos expanded toward the plains and developed into a regional center for trade, fishing, and tourism. Yet its historical soul remained intact. Each year, the Battle of Lepanto is commemorated with vivid reenactments and naval parades, attracting visitors from across Europe. Its castle, remarkably preserved, remains one of the finest examples of successive fortification layers — Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman — in Greece.
