| Battle of Kastraki | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theGreek War of Independence | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Greek revolutionaries |  Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Golfinos Petimezas Nikolaos Soliotis Spilios Rodopoulos or Spiliotakis | Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Irregular army | 20,000 infantry and cavalry | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Over 1,500 killed and wounded | 20 killed, 15 captured | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheBattle of Kastraki was a battle of theGreek War of Independence that took place inKalavryta in 1826 between the Greek revolutionaries and the army of Ibrahim Pasha.
Kastraki is a fortified location onHelmos near the village of Solos in Achaea.[1] In 1826, Ibrahim Pasha, after the fall ofMissolonghi, passed through thePeloponnese andPatras and headed forTripoli; on the way he plundered the villages he encountered and enslaved the inhabitants.[1]
Arriving at Kalavritochoria, he found it deserted by residents, since they had fled to Kastraki, as had the monks ofAgia Lavra and the city of Kalavryta.[1] According to Photakos 2000,[2] another 5,500 civilians were fortified in Kastraki,[1] while Trikoupis speaks of 5,000.[3]
The battle began on the morning of May 5th with the first attack being repelled by the Greeks; the second, however, under the leadership of Ibrahim himself, succeeded in breaking the Greek lines and pushing them back. The losses were heavy for the defenders: about 400 dead, 500 fallen off the cliff or buried in the snow,[3] and about 1000 prisoners. About 200 women with their babies in their arms fell off the cliff to escape captivity.[1][4] The battle did not continue because Nikolaos Petimezas tricked the attackers into thinking that reinforcements were coming, and Ibrahim withdrew to Kalavryta. Among the prisoners were the wife, sister and son of Nikolaos Soliotis.[5]