(Sacred) Topography of Athens during the Middle Byzantine Period

Athens, one of the most important cultural centres of Antiquity, has not yet received the attention it deserves for the medieval period of its historical development. Particularly promising appears the investigation of its Christian sacred buildings, which, in contrast to most of the utility structures, have more often survived the historical upheavals and, forming a network of topographical points of gravity, reveal a framework of the morphology of the Byzantine city. The proposed paper presents the results of an in-depth investigation of the sacred topography of Athens and its surroundings during the Middle Byzantine period, based on topographical studies on site, archaeological findings, architectural research, as well as epigraphic and literary sources. I analyse the special features of the Athenian Christian ‘pantheon’ of saints, the connection between the patrocinia of individual churches and their location, as well as the interrelationship between the sacred buildings, determined through immediate topographical proximity, connecting routes, visual axes or ritual acts. Particular attention is paid to the dependence of the sacred topography on the other known structures of Middle Byzantine urban geography, in order to recognise patterns in the distribution of sacred buildings in the urban and extra-urban fabric, which in turn could be applied to reconstruct the appearance of other, less well-preserved or explored areas of Athens. Finally, similarities and differences in the sacred topography of Athens and other Middle Byzantine cities are discussed, in order to explore to what extent the recognisable Athenian peculiarities are owed to the ancient heritage, whether the appearance of Athens on the eve of the 4th Crusade was still primarily shaped by the spirit of the ‘city of Theseus and Hadrian’ or was rather a product of the Middle Byzantine urbanism based on empire-wide political, social and cultural changes as well as influences from major political centres.