On September 16, 1571, the 212 ships of the Holy League set out from Messina, Sicily. The ships carried 40,000 sailors, 35,000 soldiers, and the hopes of Christian Europe. Led by Don John of Austria, they headed for the Gulf of Patras in Southern Greece.

Their target? The 278 war galleys and 67,000 men composing the war fleet of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Muezzinzade Ali Pasha. On October 7, the two armadas met in the largest naval engagement since the Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C. The result changed the course of history.

The wind was against the Christians, leaving them scrambling to form a line of battle before the Ottoman galleys closed in.

The Battle of Lepanto stands as a decisive point in a thousand-year conflict between Christian Europe and the Islamic empires of

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