Perithori

A small Venetian outpost, probably raised in the fifteenth century, sits on a steep rock on the northern flank of Mount Varasova in Aitoloakarnania, about 1.5 kilometres south of the Evinos river. It guarded a narrow passage between river and mountain, the route from the west into the Nafpaktos region, and was one of four fortresses that a Venetian official, Piero Sanudo, called the “keys of Lepanto” in a report of 1498. His agent, Zuan Moscho, found its walls in poor repair, the cistern useless, ammunition lacking and the garrison demoralised. Nafpaktos fell to the Ottomans in 1499, and the castle was probably abandoned. Its origins may be earlier, possibly Late Byzantine, and it could have served the monastic community on Varasova, but the record is silent. The surviving wall runs about 70 metres along the eastern and northeastern sides; the other sides relied on the natural cliff. The enclosure covers roughly 1,500 square metres.