Nafpaktos Castle: A Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman Fortress in Greece
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Greece
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Ancient Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman, Venetian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page14 sections
History
Nafpaktos Castle is a fortified complex in Nafpaktos, Greece, whose defenses developed from an ancient acropolis into a major Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman fortress. Occupying the steep hill above the northern shore of the Gulf of Corinth, near the gulf’s only natural entrance, it protected an important commercial city and its harbor.
Ancient and Byzantine Nafpaktos
Nafpaktos was an important commercial city from the Classical period through Roman times. The fifth-century BCE historian Thucydides described its ancient fortifications, and the harbor may also have been defended. Those walls enclosed a much larger area than the later medieval fortress, extending eastward across the plain toward Gribovou Beach and the hill of Saint George. The ancient acropolis stood on the summit of the castle hill, where the upper enclosure is located today, and sections of the ancient walls survive within the later defenses.
A major earthquake in 551 or 552 destroyed ancient Nafpaktos. During the early medieval period, conventionally called the “Dark Ages,” the coastal part of the city probably became deserted. In the tenth century, Nafpaktos became the seat of the Theme of Nikopolis, a Byzantine provincial administrative and military district, and of the Metropolis of Old Epirus, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of a metropolitan bishop. A strong castle was built over the ancient acropolis. It included the metropolitan church, the bishop’s palace, and the residence of the local ruler, probably represented by the small fortification known as Its Kale. Suburbs developed beyond the walls and were probably undefended.
Medieval rulers and Venetian expansion
After the Fourth Crusade fragmented Byzantine rule in 1204, Nafpaktos became a Venetian possession. A treaty transferred it to Michael I Komnenos in 1210. Michael was associated with the foundation of the Despotate of Epirus, a medieval Greek successor state. In 1294, Nafpaktos was given as a dowry to Philip I of Taranto when he married Tamar, the daughter of Nikephoros I Komnenos. Philip subsequently strengthened the city’s fortifications.
The Catalans captured Nafpaktos in 1360 or 1361, and John Bouas Spata took it in 1380. Venice reconquered the city in 1407 and began a major program of construction and repair. The Venetians extended the lower circuit to cover the suburbs and harbor, added sloping defensive faces called scarps, and replaced some older towers with truncated-conical bastions, projecting platforms designed to provide flanking fire along the walls. They also reused stones from ancient fortifications and older city buildings.
After the Ottomans captured Patras in 1430, Nafpaktos became Venice’s principal commercial hub in western Greece. Ottoman forces unsuccessfully besieged the city in 1462–1463, 1467, and 1477. Bayezid II finally captured it in 1499. The Ottomans strengthened the defenses guarding the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth by fortifying Rio and Antirrio and by repairing and rebuilding parts of Nafpaktos’s walls.
Ottoman rule and the Greek War of Independence
Venice recovered Nafpaktos in 1687 and repaired its fortifications, but the Treaty of Karlowitz returned the city to Ottoman rule in 1699. The walls were strengthened again in 1714. During the Greek War of Independence, Giorgos Anemogiannis attempted to besiege Nafpaktos on 21 May 1821. The Greek fleet failed to capture the city and withdrew without causing major damage. A naval blockade began in March 1829, and the Ottomans surrendered Nafpaktos by treaty on 18 April 1829.
After Nafpaktos became part of the Greek state, demolition of the fortifications remained limited. The eastern gate was demolished, and further breaches were made in 1884 to carry roads through the walls. The fortress now survives as an organized archaeological site, with Byzantine, Venetian, Ottoman, and later phases of repair and reconstruction. Most of the walls remain close to their former height, while sections affected by the modern street network have been altered.
Remains
Nafpaktos Castle extends from the summit of the hill to the sea and incorporates the small fortified harbor. The complex measures approximately 750 meters from north to south and 350 to 365 meters from east to west. It covers about 175,000 square meters and has approximately 2,250 meters of exterior walls, whose thickness varies from about 2.5 to 3.5 meters. Four transverse walls divide the fortress into five zones. The upper three form the upper enclosure, while the two lower zones make up the lower enclosure and include the harbor.
Upper enclosure
The upper enclosure occupies the ancient acropolis and has an irregular triangular plan measuring approximately 180 by 250 meters. It covers about 24 stremmata, with a stremma equal to 1,000 square meters. Two transverse walls divide it into three defensive zones. Its walls descend toward the south and west from the summit, while the northern side is reinforced with buttresses, an outer defensive wall, and a moat. Rectangular towers and angular projections strengthen the other wall lines.
Its Kale
The highest part of the upper enclosure is the citadel known as Its Kale. It contains four vaulted rooms, an escape passage for occupants during a siege, and a Byzantine-period cistern. The small fortification probably represents the residence of the local ruler during the Byzantine period, when Nafpaktos served as an administrative and ecclesiastical center.
Prophet Elijah Church and Byzantine basilica
The second zone contains the single-nave Church of Prophet Elijah, built in the nineteenth century. Excavations beneath it revealed a three-aisled Byzantine basilica measuring 16 by 28 meters. The basilica’s templon, the screen separating the sanctuary from the nave, survives on its supporting stylobate, the base for a row of columns or a screen. Other architectural members were incorporated into a later floor and into the walls of several buildings. Byzantine-period burials were found outside the basilica’s narthex, or entrance hall. The basilica may have been the metropolitan church dedicated to the Virgin of Nafpaktos.
At least two mosques were built on the basilica’s site during the Ottoman period, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The base of one minaret survives within the Church of Prophet Elijah. Ruins beside the church have been identified as the Byzantine bishop’s palace. Southeast of the church, a hall once used as an armory now accommodates temporary exhibitions.
Gates and supporting buildings
The third zone contains a guardhouse, a refreshment facility, and ruins interpreted as storerooms or cisterns. Two principal gates serve the upper enclosure. A southern gate connects it with the lower enclosure, while a gate at the southern end of the western wall leads outside the fortifications. The western gate, now the entrance to the archaeological site, consists of three successive gateways protected by a rectangular tower with a scarp.
At this western entrance, the first gate is set in a low wall forming part of a bastion. The second is protected by crenellations, and the third has a machicolation, an opening through which defenders could fire or drop objects onto attackers. Simple gates provide access to the other two zones of the upper enclosure.
Lower enclosure and landward defenses
The lower enclosure descends southward from the upper enclosure toward the sea and measures approximately 550 by 350 meters. Its western wall begins at the southwest corner of the upper enclosure and runs southward with two towers and two bastions. The upper tower stands on an ancient wall and includes a tower-like guard post. Beyond the second bastion, the wall runs about 40 meters west before turning south toward the seaward defenses.
Western gate and Tapia Botsari
The low-lying western section formerly had a moat and includes a gate resembling a rectangular tower. An Ottoman inscription incorporated into the gate dates it to 1714. Inside the entrance is the bastion known as Tapia Botsari. The walls and their reused ancient elements illustrate the successive adaptation of the fortifications to changing military requirements.
Faltsoporti and the eastern walls
The eastern walls begin at the southeast corner of the upper enclosure and run about 200 meters east to the bastion called Tapia of Faltsoporti. A small bastion forms part of this section, while the Faltsoporti Gate stands beside the larger work. The Tapia of Faltsoporti incorporates a relief of the Lion of Saint Mark, the emblem of Venice, with the date MCCCCXXXXI, or 1491, carved below it.
From Faltsoporti, the walls continue southward for about 330 meters. Four rectangular towers and one bastion reinforce this stretch before it reaches a polygonal bastion carrying the Clock Tower, built in 1914. The walls then run about 80 meters east to the bastion known as Oraia Tapia before turning south toward the sea. Beside the former metropolitan church stood the demolished Salona Gate, also called the Great Gate. A bastion at the junction of the eastern and seaward walls was demolished in 1937.
Transverse wall and Iron Gate
A transverse wall divides the lower enclosure into two sections. At its eastern end are a rectangular tower and a semicircular tower, with the Ottoman-period Iron Gate between them. The gate has a machicolation supported by brackets and incorporates a marble doorway. In the upper part of the lower enclosure stands the polygonal bastion known as Tsaous Tapia, which dates from the late Ottoman period.
Seaward walls and harbor
The seaward walls form the southern boundary of the lower enclosure and consist of two walls enclosing the small harbor. Together they are approximately 380 meters long. A bastion protects each side of the harbor entrance. The eastern bastion is semicircular and supports a rectangular turret. The western bastion is rectangular and incorporates another relief of the Lion of Saint Mark; it formerly also carried a turret.
The western part of the seaward wall has a small gate with a machicolation and a circular sentry post. Low cannon openings occur at approximately sea level. Expansion of Psani Beach in recent decades has separated part of this wall from the sea. The towers are predominantly rectangular and include Byzantine-period elements, while the bastions are mainly Venetian and generally triangular. The semicircular bastion carrying the present Clock Tower is Ottoman in date, reflecting the layered construction of the fortress around its harbor.
