Battle of Lepanto

Contact at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras

On 7 October 1571 the Holy League fleet under Don John of Austria met the Ottoman fleet under Müezzinzade Ali Pasha at the entrance to the Gulf of Patras — not inside the port of Lepanto itself, despite the name the battle carries.

The two fleets sighted one another during the morning and fighting began around 11:30. Six Venetian galleasses opened with heavy artillery before the lines closed.

Boarding fights across galley decks

Once the fleets closed, the engagement became an extended series of collisions, boardings, and infantry fights across galley decks. Álvaro de Bazán led the allied reserve into threatened sections of the line; Agostino Barbarigo, commanding the Venetian-heavy wing, was mortally wounded.

Around 14:00 Don John's flagship Real gained control of Ali Pasha's flagship. Ali Pasha was killed and his severed head was displayed on a pike.

What the commanders counted afterwards

Fighting continued for roughly two more hours before Uluç Ali withdrew with the surviving vessels of his wing, leaving the Holy League in possession of the battlefield and much of the Ottoman fleet. The Spanish Army Museum puts the whole action at approximately five hours.

Holy League commanders reported afterwards that they had freed 15,000 Christian captives and taken 117 galleys and 13 galliots. Their casualty estimate was 7,500 allied dead and 20,000 wounded against 8,000 Ottoman dead and 25,000 wounded; fleet, casualty, and prisoner totals differ substantially among contemporary reports and modern historians.

The victory did not recover Cyprus, which Venice formally ceded to the Ottomans in the subsequent peace.