The Architecture of Mystras between Hellas, Constantinople and the West

Mystras is the only Byzantine city whose monumental wealth is preserved in such a state that allows for the study of the architecture of all types of buildings found within an urban ensemble (fortifications, administrative buildings, churches, monasteries, and houses). Within the context of the above study, it is possible to make observations regarding the factors that influenced the formation and evolution of the architectural character of the place. In its first phase the architecture of Mystras falls within the development of the so-called Helladic School, as it evolved after the end of the Middle Byzantine period. The strong influences from Western European architecture — evident in other parts of Southern Greece mainly from the mid-13th century onwards — are almost non-existent here. The erection, in the second decade of the 14th century, of the Catholicon and other buildings of the Brontochion Monastery, in which significant influences from the architecture of Constantinople have long been identified, appears to have had a long-term impact on local architecture. This occurred through the well-known in the Middle Ages process of imitation and replication of models. From the mid-14th century onward, elements of Western European architecture appear in the architecture of Mystras — similar to those identified throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. Although it is possible that the introduction of such elements into Mystras’ architecture at certain periods is related to the presence in the city of specific individuals, such as Isabella of Lusignan, it seems that the shift in the architectural character of the city and its broader region fits within the framework of a new, common aesthetic expression observed in the area during the 14th and 15th centuries. This aesthetic expression — which, in certain cases, renders the architecture hybrid — can be attributed to the multiculturalism that characterizes the Eastern Mediterranean region in the Late Middle Ages.