Nafpaktos

Nafpaktos sits on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth, built amphitheatrically up the hillside beneath a sprawling Venetian castle. Its glory is a tiny circular harbour, enclosed by curving crenellated walls that run down from the fortress on either side and end in a pair of stone towers guarding the entrance. Small fishing boats bob within, cafes line the quay, and few ports in Greece are so immediately charming. Known to the Venetians and Ottomans as Lepanto, the town has been fought over and prized for its strategic position since antiquity.

The castle of Nafpaktos is among the best preserved in Greece, its walls stepping up the slope in a series of enclosures that once divided the town into districts, all the way to the citadel at the summit. A walk up through the old streets and along the ramparts rewards you with a magnificent panorama over the harbour, the gulf and the mountains of the Peloponnese across the water, with the great Rio-Antirrio bridge gleaming to the west.

Nafpaktos owes its worldwide fame to the sea. On 7 October 1571, in the Battle of Lepanto, the combined Christian fleet of the Holy League destroyed the Ottoman navy in the waters off the town, a decisive engagement that halted Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean and in which the writer Miguel de Cervantes was wounded. A statue of Cervantes stands by the harbour, and the naval clash is commemorated with an annual festival.

Beyond its history, the town is simply a delightful place to linger. The two town beaches, Psani and Gribovo, stretch along the seafront on either side of the harbour, backed by tavernas and bars, and the waterfront comes alive on summer evenings. Inland rise the forested Nafpaktia mountains, a region of traditional villages and river country.

Easily reached across the Rio-Antirrio bridge from Patras, Nafpaktos makes a relaxed base or a memorable stop, a town where a Venetian harbour, a hilltop castle and a legendary battle come together on one of the loveliest stretches of the gulf.