This fortress has had an illustrious history and changed hands many times: Ottoman Sultan Bayezit II built the initial fortification at Rio in 1499. It fell to the Spaniards in 1532, but was then reclaimed by the Ottomans. In 1603 the Knights of Malta destroyed parts of it, before the fort was taken over by Venetian nobleman and warlord Francesco Morosini. The latter added new bastions, towers and ramparts, only to have it seized again by the Ottomans in 1715. They eventually surrendered in 1828 to French revolutionist General Nicolas Joseph Maison at the end of the Greek revolution.