Italian name for Naupactus, a titular metropolitan see of ancient Epirus. The see of Naupactus was suppressed in 1900, and replaced by the see of Acarnania and Naupactus. Naupactus was an Athenian military station 5th century B.C., and was taken from the Venetians by the Turks in 1498. In 1827 it became part of the new Greek realm.
In October 1571, in the Straits of Lepanto, occurred the celebrated victory of the combined Christian fleets under Don John of Austria, over the Turks. Thousands of Christians were liberated, and the infidels, completely destroyed, suffered their first great defeat at sea.