It was equipped with three heavy and six light artillery pieces, was propelled by a total of 290 rowers, and, in addition, carried some 400 sailors and soldiers at Lepanto.

Giovanni Battista Castello il Bergamasco did the first sketch for the decoration under the orders of Francisco Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Monteagudo.

Real and the Turkish galley Sultana, Ali Pasha's flagship, engaged in direct deck-to-deck combat very soon after the start of the battle.

Sultana was boarded and after about one hour of bloody fighting, with reinforcements being supplied to both ships by supporting galleys of the two respective fleets, captured.

In 1971, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the battle, a replica of La Real was built under the direction of José María Martínez-Hidalgo y Terán and displayed in the Barcelona Maritime Museum where it can be viewed today.