Old Navarino castle

In Frankish times, under the Principality of Achaea, it was known as Port-de-Jonc ("Cane Harbour") or Port-de-Junch in French, with some variants and derivatives: in Italian Porto-Junco, Zunchio or Zonchio, in medieval Catalan Port Jonc, in Latin Iuncum, Zonglon/Zonglos (Ζόγγλον/ς or Ζόγκλον/ς) in Greek, etc.

[4] The castle sits atop an imposing 200-metre (660 ft) rock formation on the northern edge of the bay, flanked by sheer cliffs; the naturally defensible site has probably been occupied since classical times.

[5] According to the French and Greek versions of the Chronicle of the Morea, the castle was built by Nicholas II of Saint-Omer, the lord of Thebes, who in c. 1281 received extensive lands in Messenia in exchange for ceding his wife's possessions of Kalamata and Chlemoutsi to the princely domain.

[6] The fortress remained relatively unimportant thereafter, except for the 1350s, when the Genoese seized it as a base for raids into the Venetian possessions in the area;[7] a naval battle took place there in 1354 between Venice and Genoa.

[1] From the early years of the 15th century, Venice set its eyes on the fortress of Navarino, fearing lest its rivals the Genoese seize it and use it as a base for attacks against the Venetian outposts of Modon and Coron.

The Venetians nevertheless recaptured it shortly after, on 3/4 December, almost by chance, with a force of only 50 men; but on 20 May 1501, a joint Ottoman land and sea attack under Kemal Reis and Hadım Ali Pasha retook it.

[5] During the Morean War, the Ottomans concentrated their defenses at the new fortress, and the old castle's 100-man garrison surrendered to the numerically far superior Venetians under Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck without resistance on 2 June 1686.

[12] As a result, the Venetians initially considered improving the fortress outright, but ended up doing nothing; by 1706, a list of its artillery contained only five guns of consequential size, and the castle was intended to be demolished.