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.

[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.

In the event, the Venetians seized the fortress themselves in 1417 and, after prolonged diplomatic manoeuvring, succeeded in legitimizing their new possession from the Prince of Achaea, Centurione II Zaccaria, in 1423.

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.