By Nicolas Bard

Mystras, also known as “myzithras” in Moreau’s Chronicle, was a fortified Greek city in Laconia.

Perched on Taygetto, close to the ancient Sparta, Mystras was the capital of the Byzantine Despot of Mystras in the 14th and 15th centuries, giving a period of prosperity and cultural boom. The area remained inhabited throughout the Turkish occupation, and was mistakenly considered by Western travelers to be Ancient Sparta. In the 1830s, when the new city of Sparta was built, Mystras was finally abandoned and has since remained a deserted but beautiful and highly historic area, welcoming thousands of visitors from all lengths and widths of the universe. Indeed, it is the third most visited archaeological site in Greece, after the Acropolis and Ancient Olympia!

Mystras’ story begins in the mid -13th century, when the conquest of the Peloponnese was completed by the Franks. Specifically, in 1249 the Prince of the Franks William II Villeardouin built a powerful wall and castle on the east side of Taygetos, on the top of a steep and conical form, named Mystras or Myzithras. The name preceded the founding of the castle and was the name by which the locals called the mountain before 1249. The name is related to myzithra and, according to some historians, is linked to the shape of the mountain. Others still believe that it comes from the profession of myzithra.

The good fortification of the hill and the evolution of Mystras over the next two centuries (late Byzantine period) in a strong political, military, spiritual and art center is linked to the abolition of the Byzantine Empire by the 4th Crusade (1204). After that, the Byzantine interest shifted to its western provinces. The change is also linked to the commercial penetration of the Italian cities (Venice, Genoa, Pisa, etc.), which upgraded the importance of shopping malls and naval stations throughout the Peloponnese.
In the Peloponnese, the Franks settled in 1204, with their leader Godfrey Villeardouinou. They founded the Principality of Achaia (or Morea), but they managed to extend its limits to the southern Peloponnese after 1248, when William II Villeardouin also occupied Monemvasia. The establishment of the castle in Mystras in 1249 marked the consolidation of their domination in the Peloponnese.
Mystras is built on a secluded mountain of 634 meters high, belonging to the mountain range of Taygetos and has a very strong and strategic position. The particular morphology of the mountain, with the two platforms at the top (where the castle was built) and the northern back (where the palaces and the square are located), the steep and steep slopes on its south and southeast side, and the possibility of easy fortification of the rest of the sides, which provided the other sides and the other sides of the other sides, which gave the other sides, From the natural advantages of this position, which also explain the reasons why William II Villeardouin chose to stand there walls.

Today in Mystras we find seven important churches:

  1. Saint Dimitrios (metropolis). It is a royal wooden, with nice sculptures in the iconostasis and frescoes. In its courtyard lies the Metropolitan Mansion, which hosts the Mystras Museum.
  2. Evangelistria, one -storey with a characteristic wide splint.
  3. The Holy Theodore, with the characteristic well -known octagonal dome. It is the largest and oldest church of Mystras. He maintains impressive frescoes, including the portrait of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos with dated 1423. Here is the tomb of Moreau Theodoros I.
  4. Our Lady of Odigitria (boss). This is called the three -storey two -storey trumpet temple with two chapels of the “Chrysovoula” because it is covered internally with a hagiographic composition of Angels holding golden bulls of 1314, 1319, 1320 and 1322, and the other of Andronikos depicted by Emperor I
  5. Hagia Sophia, just above the palaces of 1350, was the cathedral of the Monastery of Zodotus Christ and was probably the church of the palaces. Many members of the ruling class of Mystras have been buried in it, and in a grave of the northern arcade was found the silk female female noble dress of the early 15th century, kept in the Mystras Museum.
  6. The passionate. It is a complex and picturesque monastery complex at the southeast end of the settlement, next to the steep rock. He was a Catholic monastery dedicated to Our Lady.
  7. And finally Pantanassa, whose church is the best preserved monument in the area. There are also the tombs of Despina Cleopa Malatesta and Theodora, the wife of Emperor Constantine IA Palaiologos.

All of these churches were universal monasteries. In general, the churches of Mystras were a place of learning of Byzantine architecture, painting, hagiography and spatial study of the time, just before the Renaissance. Today, only Pantanassa functions as a monastery. Many of the churches of Mystras owe their current form to maintenance work carried out by Anastasios Orlando shortly before 1940. The face of the churches is completely linked to the natural relief of the place in which they were built. Thus, all churches diverge to the East, in violation of the relevant rules of religious tradition.
From an architectural point of view, the simple royal press and the characteristic of the Mystra press that combines the basilica on the ground floor and the temple with domes in the palate. The trademark of the churches are of course the external arcades. Overall, the architecture of the buildings and the building materials used to build them form a very harmonious effect, which becomes one with the environment, and no disagreement is spoiled. Indeed, in 1989, by decision of the UNESCO committee responsible, Mystras was registered as a cultural good in the list of World Heritage Site. The medieval ruins and the historical temples, combined with the lush mountain and the backdrop of the imposing Taygetos create a setting out of another era, which is undoubtedly unique in its kind.