Photos

This is the entrance of the small harbor of Nafpaκtos.
Nafpaktos, the " Jewel of the Corinthian Gulf, " is a modern little city with ca. 16,000 inhabitants with good clean beaches. The picturesque, mainlyVenetian 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 Peloponnesus Mt. Panakhaikon. Ancient Nafpaktos, was taken during the arrival of the Doric Clans in 1104 B.C. The town was destroyed by earthquakes in 583 B.C. Later the town was occupied by the Ozolian Locrians, and was taken in 454 B.C. by the Athenians.Here they 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 B.C. by Phormion and in 426 B.C. by Demosthenes against the Spartans. In 338 B.C. Philip the 2nd of Macedonia, occupies Nafpaktos from the Achaians and delivers it to Atolians.In the 218 B.C. Nafpaktos becomes the capital of the Aetolic Confederation. Nafpaktos is classified in Dominant of Epirus in 1205-1295 A.D., the town becomes a Venetian Colony in the year 1407-1499 A.D., Occupied by the Turks in 1499, Lepanto is chiefly celebrated for the victory which the combined popal, Spanish, Venetian, and Genoese fleets, under Don Juan of Austria, gained over the Turkish fleet on Oct. 7, 1571. At last Nafpaktos was liberated from the Turks, in 1821-1829 A.D. Saint Dimitrios, protector of the city of Nafpaktos, was martyred in 305 A.D. defending Christianity. He is also regarded as the Patron Saint of Thessaloniki and its saviour during difficult moments. Nafpaktos is one of the few Greek towns that managed to survive and to pass from prehistorical age to nowadays. The town for more than 3.200 years of turbulent life, appeared under various names, such as, Nafpaktos from its founding Lepanto by the Venetians, Epahtos by the Byzantines, Enevahte and Nepahtos by the Turks. Its primary name came from the fact that the area is located historically as naval colony, where ships were manufactured, by Loric races and later by Doric ones. Nafs (ship) + pignimi (manufacture) = Nafpaktos.