Siege of the Castle of Saint George

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	Feriz Beg

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 succeeded in capturing the Ottoman stronghold of Cephalonia.

Cephalonia, one of the

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

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.

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

^ Setton (1978), pp. 98, 290
^ Setton (1978), p. 515 (note 40)
^ Setton (1978), pp. 515–522
^ Setton (1978), pp. 522–523
^ Setton (1978), p. 523

References

Freely, John. The Ionian Islands: Corfu, Cephalonia, Ithaka and Beyond (2008)
ISBN 1-84511-696-8

ISBN 0-87169-127-2
.

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

[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

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