Fall of the Republic of Venice with Napoleon. On 10 June, the heir to the Duchy of Parma, Louis of Bourbon, and two days later, Napoleon invaded the Romagna, which belonged to the Papal States; on 23 June the Pope had to accept the French occupation of the northern Legations, allowing the French to occupy the port city of Ancona on the Adriatic Sea. The appearance of French warships in the Adriatic led Venice to renew the ancient decree that prohibited the entry of foreign fleets in the Venetian Lagoon, and informed Paris of that. Flotillas and fortifications were established along the lagoon's shores with the
Gulf of Patras of 350–400 km. The port city of Patras lies to the southeast and is the only major port on the gulf. It serves ferries to Ancona and Brindisi in Italy and to Cephalonia. On the northern shore Missolonghi also has a port. The old ports of Rio and Antirrio lie at the east end of the Gulf; there is a ferry service between them which complements the traffic over the Rio-Antirio bridge. The gulf is rich in fish as well as molluscs including sea snails and clams. A number of major naval battles took place in the Gulf of Patras: