The Church of Annunziata was badly damaged during the Ottoman siege of 1537 and was restored almost from its foundations five years later. It played a key part in one of the greatest naval battles in history, the Battle of Nafpaktos – or Lepanto – in 1571, when a coalition of Catholic States (mostly Spain and its Italian territories) inflicted a crushing defeat on the Ottoman fleet in the Gulf of Patras. Among those who fought in the battle was none other than Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. Cervantes was badly injured and brought to a small hospital opposite the Church of Annunziata. Many Latin nobles who died during the battle were buried in the church and their remains were later transferred to Corfu’s Catholic cemetery.