Mesolóngion [key], town (1991 pop. 12,103), capital of Aetolia and Acarnania prefecture, W central Greece, a port on the Gulf of Pátrai. It trades in fish, wine, and tobacco. Mesolóngion was a major stronghold of the Greek insurgents in the Greek War of Independence. Its inhabitants successfully resisted a siege by forces of the Ottoman Empire in 1822–23 and held out heroically against a second siege from 1825 to 1826, when the Ottoman forces captured the town. Lord Byron, the English poet who supported the Greek insurgents, died there in 1824.
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