She was armed with a main battery of four 432 mm (17 in) guns mounted in a central barbette and was capable of a top speed of 17.8 knots (33.0 km/h; 20.5 mph).

Lepanto spent the first two decades of her career in the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where she took part in annual training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet.

The Italia class, designed by Benedetto Brin, was ordered in the mid-1870s as part of a naval construction program aimed at countering the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

[4][6] Lepanto was armed with a main battery of four 432 mm (17 in) 27-caliber guns, mounted in two pairs en echelon in a central barbette.

Brin believed that contemporary steel alloys could not effectively defeat armor-piercing shells of the day, and so he discarded it completely.

[a] She was laid down at the Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando shipyard at Livorno on 4 November 1876, ten months after her sister Italia.

Later that year, the ship was present during a naval review held for the German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a visit to Italy.

[8] In 1890, Lepanto participated in the annual fleet maneuvers in the First Squadron, along with the protected cruisers Piemonte and Dogali and several torpedo boats.

The ship served as the flagship of Permanent Squadron in 1893, flying the flag of Vice Admiral Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa.

[18] For the periodic fleet maneuvers later that year, Lepanto was assigned to the First Division of the Reserve Squadron, which also included the ironclads Duilio and Ruggiero di Lauria and the protected cruiser Lombardia.

[20] In 1899, Lepanto, Re Umberto, Sicilia, and the three Ruggiero di Lauria-class ironclads served in the Active Squadron, which was kept in service for eight months of the year, with the remainder spent with reduced crews.

[24] Lepanto was instead withdrawn from front-line service in March that year and she became a gunnery training ship based in La Spezia.

[27] During the annual fleet maneuvers in September and October 1907, Lepanto was present to carry observers of the exercises, though she did not directly take part in the training.

[26] At the start of the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, Lepanto was assigned to the 5th Division of the Italian fleet, along with her sister Italia and the ironclad Enrico Dandolo.