Ekhinádes Islands

(Local Name: Nisiá) The Ekhinádes are a group of islands lying just off the coast round the mouth of the river Akhelóos, in the Ionian Sea. The principal islands in the group are Dragonéra, Petelá and Oxiá, now partly linked with the mainland as a result of silting up.

In this area was fought, on October sixth 1571, the naval battle of Lepanto (= Náfpaktos), so called because the Turkish fleet was based there, in which the 26 year-old Don John of Austria, with 250 Venetian and Spanish galleys, destroyed almost 200 vessels of the Turkish fleet, which was of similar strength.