Sfaktiria and Fanari

The visitors of Pylos must definitely visit on boat the picturesque islands of Navarino Bay: Fanari, Sphacteria and Chelonaki, an islet in the middle of the bay. The name “Fanari” derives from the lighthouse (faros) located on the islet, which operated in 1873.

On the summit of the island you can see the French monument, which was erected in 1890, in order to stand as a reminder of all the significant events that took place in the area, leading to the constitution of the new Greek state.

Sphacteria, with its coarse, rocky landscape, was a strategic spot already since ancient times. There you will find the monument of Count Santorre di Santarosa, a great philhellene, and Italy’s Minister of Military Affairs, who arrived in Greece in 1824 in order to fight in the Revolution, where he lost his life.

In the interior of the island, another two monuments denote its historic presence. The first is dedicated to Alexis Malles, an officer of Maison’s French troops, and the second to Paul Bonaparte, the nephew of the great military leader. At the center of the island there is the pier, where the small boats used to dock.

Of great interest on the island are also two churches; Panaghoula, a chapel with evident signs of decline, and next to it the wooden church of Aghios Nikolaos, which was erected by the Russians in 1997, in memory of the dead at the naval battle.