Qualla: Battle of Kalamata (1685)

Battle of Kalamata (1685): Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The Kapudan Pasha had every reason for confidence. His army of eight thousand men — six thousand infantry and two thousand sipahi cavalry — occupied an entrenched camp between Kalamata Castle and the mouth of the Nedon River. He had refused Morosini's demand for surrender. When the Venetian council of war met to consider an attack, most of the commanders agreed the Ottoman position was too strong. And then Duke Maximilian William of Brunswick-Lüneburg spoke up.

Image: Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Kalamata (1685): The Long Road to September 1685

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Venice had been watching the Peloponnese for decades before the battle. In 1659, the Venetian commander Francesco Morosini had landed briefly at Kalamata during the Cretan War, joined by Maniot and Arvanite fighters, only to sail away without holding it — carrying off the town's ...

Image: Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Kalamata (1685): An Unlikely Coalition

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The army that assembled before Kalamata was one of the more unusual coalitions of the 17th century. The Venetian force numbered around 8,200 when it arrived — 3,100 Venetian mercenaries and Schiavoni troops, 2,400 soldiers from the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 1,000 Knights Hospi...

Image: Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Kalamata (1685): Dawn on the Nedon

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The battle began at dawn on 14 September. Both sides advanced. On the Venetian right, Ottoman sipahi cavalry moved into the hills to outflank the Hanoverians — but the heights were already held by Maniot fighters, who had moved there first. On the left, Saxon troops repulsed the ...

Image: Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Kalamata (1685): A Castle Blown Up by Its Captors

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Victory brought an act of deliberate destruction. The Ottoman ammunition blasts had already damaged Kalamata Castle badly; the Venetians, examining what remained, judged the hilltop fortification obsolete — an artifact of an earlier age of warfare that predated the artillery that...

Image: Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0