NAVARINO, NAVARIN, or NEO CASTRO, is a town of Greece, in the Morea, celebrated for the excellence of the harbour on which it stands. This harbour is formed in front by the narrow island Sphagia, the ancient Sphacteria, which is three miles in length. The entrance, which is at the south end of the island, is less than a mile broad, but the harbour opens to a width of three miles, and its general depth, with the exception of two shoal spots, varies from twelve to twenty-seven fathoms. This harbour is so spacious, and so well secured from the sea, as to admit of the largest fleet anchoring and riding in it with perfect safety.
At two periods very remote from each other this harbour has been the scene of remarkable naval victories. The first was during the Peloponnesian war, 425 before Christ, when the Athenian fleet under Demosthenes pursued the Spartans, who were more powerful, and entirely destroyed their fleet within the harbour; in consequence of which the Spartans sued for peace. During the revolutionary war in Greece, the city was taken by the Greeks under the command of Ypsilanti in 1821; but, in consequence of a mutiny of the Moreotes, who formed the garrison, then commanded by Kolokotroni, it capitulated, on the 23d of March 1825, to Ibrahim Pasha, the son of the viceroy of Egypt, who thus secured an important naval asylum, from which to accomplish the subjugation of Greece. The united fleets of Turkey and Egypt were collected in the harbour, where they had anchored, having escaped a meeting with a united fleet of English, French, and Russian ships, who had been authorized to prevent their advancing to Greece. The united fleet of the three powers entered the harbour, and some slight, possibly undesigned hostilities, having occurred, a general attack was made on the Turkish and Egyptian fleets. The English admiral, Codrington, had the chief command, whilst under him Admiral Rigny commanded the French, and Count Heyden the Russian squadron. The attack took place on the 20th of October 1827, and, after some hours of fierce and bloody contention, it terminated in the destruction of the Turkish and Egyptian fleet, the greater part of which was either burned or sunk. This action, however it may be viewed in point of justice or policy, decided the question as to the independence of Greece. The Egyptians were expelled from the Morea; and the sultan, having lost his fleet, found himself obliged to legitimate a revolution which he had laboured in vain to put down. In fact, the battle of Navarino, described at the time as "an untoward event," proved, in its consequences, fatal to Turkey; it secured to Russia the undisputed command of the Black Sea, and thus enabled her, in the campaigns of 1828 and 1829, to obtain those advantages which ultimately led to the humiliating treaty of Adrianople.
The city of Navarino stands on the south-east side of the harbour. It is surrounded by a wall without any ditch, and
Navarre. is commanded by a fortress on a height, which is a regular hexagon, defended by five towers at the external angles, but without ditches, ramparts, or outworks. From the sea a frigate or two might easily batter down the walls. The city once contained between 6000 and 7000 inhabitants; but many of them retired into Arcadia during the bombardment of the Egyptians in 1825, an epidemic disease soon after augmented the depopulation, and the peace has not yet fully replaced these losses.