Pylos

Pylos was one of the most important kingdoms and ports of Mycenean Greece, from 1600 BCE until 1100 BCE. The king of Pylos, Nestor, was a wise and prudent ruler whose forces, according to Homer, participated in the Trojan War and whose counsel was respected by all Greeks.

Pylos was renamed Navarino when it was, for a brief 15-year period, conquered by the Venetians, around 1680 CE and then reconquered by the Ottomans. Ottoman rule continued until 1827, when, during the famous Battle of Navarino, the British, French and Russians fought on the side of the Greeks, vanquishing the Ottomans and opening the way to the foundation of the modern Greek state.