Landscape of Patras, Achaia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe

The Patras area has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years. The city developed as a Mycenaean stronghold during the Bronze Age and later became a real polis (city-state) always remaining however in a marginal and secondary role but still managing, like the other cities of Achaia, to escape the Spartan hegemony in the Peloponnese. However, in 429 BC. During the Peloponnesian War the Gulf of Patras was the focus of the Battle of Rhium between the fleet of the Spartan Peloponnesian League and the fleet of the Athenian Delio-Attic League. Later Patras was part of the Achaean League. The city began to acquire importance with the Romans who under Augustus transformed it into an imperial colony. Here Saint Andrew was martyred. In the Middle Ages it was a thriving commercial port first in the Byzantine era and then in the XIII century following the fourth crusade when it was transformed into a fiefdom under the control of Goffredo I of Villehardouin. Patras, already a Venetian colony since 1408, was conquered by the Ottomans in 1458. Despite numerous attempts at reconquest by the Venetians and Genoese in the 15th and 16th centuries, Patras was reconquered by the Serenissima only in 1687 and maintained until 1715. It was in Patras that the Greek War of Independence began, but the Ottomans barricaded in the citadel resisted until 1828. On October 7 of that year, Patras was liberated by the French led by General Maison.