Nafpaktos Castle

The Castle of Nafpaktos, known to history as Lepanto, is a Venetian stronghold whose present form dates largely from the first period of Venetian rule, 1407 to 1499. Its elongated, irregular enclosure runs roughly 750 metres north to south, covers 175,000 square metres, and descends from a northwestern citadel to a small port, with walls between 2.5 and 3.5 metres thick. Four transverse walls divide the interior into five zones, the upper three forming the original Byzantine core, the lower two encompassing the town and harbour. The Venetians extended the defences, added truncated-cone bastions, and set the Lion of St Mark into the west tower and the Faltsoporti gate. Thirty towers and bastions survive, including the detached Venetian bastion called Oraia Tapia and a semicircular Ottoman work crowned by a 1914 clock tower. The site has older layers: ancient remains appear in the northwest walls, and the Byzantines rebuilt a hilltop castle in the tenth or eleventh century. The fortifications survive largely at full height, in relatively good condition.

Heritage data from Wikidata, compiled and verified in the Atika atlas.