![[Flag of Nafpaktia]](../images/g/gr-pw-np.gif)
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Flag of Nafpaktia, left, new municipality of Nafpaktia, right, former municipality of Naupactus - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 24 May 2014
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The municipality of Nafpaktia (27,800 inhabitants in 2011; 87,040 ha) was formed in the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the three former municipalities of Antirrio (Αντίρριο, 2,598 inh.), Apodotia (Αποδοτία, 2,598 inh.), Chalkeia (Χάλκεια; 3,161 inh.), Naupactus (Ναύπακτος, 19,768 inh.), Platanos (λάτανος, 1,611 inh.), and Pyllini (Πυλλήνη, 2,000 inh.).
Naupactus (Italian: Lepanto; Turkish: İnebahtı), is situated on a bay on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth. In Greek legend, Naupactus is the place where the Heraclidae built a fleet to invade the Peloponnese.
In historical times it belonged to the Ozolian Locrians; about 455 BC, it
fell to the Athenians, who peopled it with Messenian refugees and made it
their chief naval station in western Greece during the Peloponnesian war.
In 404 it was restored to the Locrians, who subsequently lost it to the
Achaeans, but recovered it through Epaminondas.
Philip II of Macedon gave Naupactus to the Aetolians, who held it till 191
BC, when after an obstinate siege it was surrendered to the Romans. In
551/2, during the reign of Justinian I, the city was destroyed by an
earthquake.
From the late 9th century, it was capital of the Byzantine thema of
Nicopolis. During the 9thÐ10th centuries, the town was an important
harbour for the Byzantine navy and a strategic point for communication
with the Byzantine possessions in southern Italy.
Following the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade,
it became part of the Despotate of Epirus. In 1294, the town was ceded to
Philip I, Prince of Taranto as part of the dowry of Thamar Angelina Komnene.
The ruler of Thessaly, Constantine Doukas, attacked Epirus in the next year
and captured Naupactus, but in 1296 they handed most of their conquests back to the Angevins, and Naupactus became a major Angevin base on the Greek
mainland. In 1304 or 1305, the Epirotes recovered Naupactus during a war
with the Angevins, but handed it back when peace was concluded in 1306
In 1361 the town was captured by the Catalans of the Duchy of Athens.
In 1376 or 1377 it fell to the Albanians under John Bua Spata.
Apart from a brief occupation by the Knights Hospitaller in 1378, Naupactus
remained in Albanian hands until 1407, when the town was sold to the
Republic of Venice.
By 1449, the Ottomans had completed their conquest of all of Epirus and
Aetolia-Acarnania apart from Naupactus. The fortress fell to the Ottomans in 1499, during the Second OttomanÐVenetian War.
Under the Ottomans, Naupactus was known as İnebahtı and was the seat of a Sanjak. The mouth of the Gulf of Lepanto was the scene of the great sea battle in which the naval power of the Ottoman Empire was nearly completely destroyed by the united Papal, Spanish, Habsburg and Venetian forces (Battle of Lepanto, 7 October 1571). In 1687 it was recaptured by the Venetians, but was again restored to the Ottomans in 1699, by the Treaty of Karlowitz. It became part of independent Greece in March 1829.
Olivier Touzeau, 24 May 2014
The flag of Nafpaktia (photo) is white with the municipality emblem, in brown. Nafpaktia uses the same emblem as Naupactus, except the writing of the name of the municipality, which was changed from Δήμος Ναυπάκτου to Δήμος Ναυπακτίας.
The former municipality of Naupactus used the same flag (Kokkonis website), with the appropriate emblem.
Olivier Touzeau, 24 May 2014
