Siege of the Castle of Saint George

1500 battle of the Second Ottoman-Venetian War

Siege of the Castle of St. George

Part of the Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503)

19th-century depiction of Gonzalo de Córdoba directing the assault against the castle
| Date| 8 November – 24 December 1500

|

Location|

Cephalonia, Ionian Sea, off Greece

Result|  Spanish–Venetian victory
Belligerents
Spain
Republic of Venice|  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba
Benedetto Pesaro|  Gisdar Aga †
Kemal Reis
Feriz Beg

* v
* t
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Ottoman–Habsburg wars

Hungary and the Balkans

* Mohács (1526)
* Hungarian campaign (1527–28)
* Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War (1527–1593)
* Hungary (1529)
* Vienna (1529)
* Little Wars in Hungary
* (1529–1533) (1540–1547) (1551–1562) (1565–1568)
* Győr (1577)
* Bicske (1578)
* Long War (1593–1606)
* Bocskai uprising (1604–1606)
* Austro-Turkish War (1663–64)
* Great Turkish War (1683–1699)
* Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718)
* Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739)
* Austro-Turkish War (1788–91)

Mediterranean

* Cephalonia (1500)
* Balearics (1501)
* 1st Algiers (1516)
* Tlemcen (1518)
* 2nd Algiers (1519)
* 3rd Algiers (1529)
* Formentera (1529)
* Cherchell (1531)
* Coron (1533–1534)
* 1st Tunis (1534)
* 2nd Tunis (1535)
* Mahón (1535)
* Preveza (1538)
* Castelnuovo (1539)
* Girolata (1540)
* Alborán (1540)
* 4th Algiers (1541)
* Nice (1543)
* 1st Mostaganem (1543)
* Lipari (1544)
* Naples (1544)
* 2st Mostaganem (1547)
* Cullera (1550)
* Mahdia (1550)
* 1st Gozo (1551)
* Tripoli (1551)
* Ponza (1552)
* Corsica (1553–1559)
* Viste (1554)
* Béjaïa (1555)
* Oran (1556)
* Balearics (1558)
* 3rd Mostaganem (1558)
* Djerba (1560)
* Orán and Mers-el-Kébir (1563)
* 1st Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1563)
* Granada (1563)
* 2nd Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1564)
* Malta (1565)
* 3rd Tunis (1569)
* 2nd Gozo (1570)
* Lepanto (1571)
* Navarino (1572)
* 4th Tunis (1573)
* 5th Tunis (1574)
* Cadaqués (1575)
* Lanzarote (1586)
* Chios (1599)
* Hammamet (1605)
* 1nd La Goulette (1609)
* Cape Corvo (1613)
* 2nd La Goulette (1612)
* Malta (1614)
* Cape Celidonia (1616)
* Constantinople (1616)

* v
* t
* e

Second Ottoman–Venetian War

* Friuli (1499)
* Zonchio (1499)
* Modon (1500)
* Castle of St. George (1500)

The siege of the Castle of Saint George or siege of Cephalonia occurred from 8 November 1500 until 24 December 1500, when following a series of Venetian disasters at the hands of the Turks, the Spanish-Venetian army under Captain Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and Benedetto Pesaro succeeded in capturing the Ottoman stronghold of Cephalonia.

## Background

[edit]

Cephalonia, one of the Ionian Islands off the western coast of Greece, had been in the hands of the Italian counts palatine of the Tocco family until 1479, when it was captured by the Ottoman Empire.[1] With the exception of a brief period of Venetian control in 1482–83, the island remained in Ottoman hands until 1500.[2]

The second Ottoman–Venetian War broke out in 1499 with the Ottoman attack on the Venetian port of Lepanto on the Greek mainland, which surrendered on 24 August 1499. The war continued to go badly for Venice, as the Ottomans shifted their attention to the Morea and stormed Modon on 9 August 1500, followed by the surrender thereupon of the neighbouring forts Coron and Navarino.[3]

## Siege

[edit]

On 17 August 1500, however, the Spanish captain-general, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, offered the forces at his disposal to the aid of Venice. Aided by the Spanish fleet, the newly appointed Venetian captain-general of the Sea, Benedetto Pesaro, landed on Cephalonia and after a siege took the island's capital, the Castle of St. George, on 24 December.[4] The Spanish commander and his fleet returned to Sicily after that, but Pesaro went on to recover Santa Maura (Lefkada) as well in August 1502.

## Aftermath

[edit]

When a peace treaty was concluded in Constantinople in December 1502, Cephalonia remained in Venetian hands, but Lefkada was returned to Ottoman rule in 1503.[5]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Setton (1978), pp. 98, 290
2. ^ Setton (1978), p. 515 (note 40)
3. ^ Setton (1978), pp. 515–522
4. ^ Setton (1978), pp. 522–523
5. ^ Setton (1978), p. 523

## References

[edit]

* Freely, John. The Ionian Islands: Corfu, Cephalonia, Ithaka and Beyond (2008) ISBN 1-84511-696-8
* Setton, Kenneth M. (1978). The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), Volume II: The Fifteenth Century. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-127-2.

38°12′00″N 20°30′00″E﻿ / ﻿38.2000°N 20.5000°E﻿ / 38.2000; 20.5000
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