Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Lakonia

The Pantanassa (“Queen of All”) Monastery is the only monastery on the archaeological site of Mystras ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/49139868 ), which is still inhabited. This sacred monastery was founded by a chief minister of the late Byzantine Despotate of the Morea, and was dedicated in September 1428. The domed church with its tall bell tower reflect a unique combination of Byzantine and gothic styles; it has a beautifully ornate stone-carved facade. The arched interior is filled with colourful frescoes. When we arrived at the monastery after a steep climb, one of the friendly and helpful nuns welcomed us with a glass of cool water, a very sweet loukoumia and provided us with a wrap to cover our legs. We were surprised by the idyllic patio with lots of flowers and green plants. Pantanassa Monastery is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mystras.

The Hodegetria church was founded by abbot Pachomios of the Brontochion Monastery in Mystras ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/49139868 ). It was built between 1310 and 1315 as the katholikon (main church). The monastery acquired many resources in the area of Sparta and elsewhere in the Peloponnese and was so wealthy that the new church was referred by the local people as the Aphentiko (“head man” or “boss”). A new architectural type, the so-called “Mystras mixed type”, was created for the first time in this church. Its ground floor takes the form of a three-aisled basilica, while at the gallery level it has features of the more complex five domed cross-square church. The church also has a fine bell tower. Beautiful frescoes, comparable to frescoes in Constantinople, decorate the church. A Hodegetria or Virgin Hodegetria, is an iconographic depiction of Virgin Mary, holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to Him as the source of salvation for humankind. In the Western Church this type of icon is sometimes called “Our Lady of the Way”. Hodegetria church is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mystras.

The Mitropolis (Cathedral of Agios Dimitrios) is considered being the most important church of Mystras ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/49139868 ). The church is part of a complex of buildings enclosed by a high wall. The original church was founded in the late 13th century as a wooden roofed basilica. The cathedral has a mixed architectural style: it combines the groundplan of a Roman basilica with a Greek domed church, which was added in the first half of the 15th century. The church - the oldest of the surviving churches of Mystras - stands in a courtyard. Its impressive ecclesiastical ornaments and furniture include a marble iconostasis, an intricately carved wooden throne, and a marble slab in the floor featuring a two-headed eagle (the symbol of Byzantium) located on the exact site where Emperor Constantine XI Palaeologos was crowned in 1448 (PiP 5). The church also has some fine frescoes, dating back to late 13th and early 14th centuries. Next to the cathedral is a small museum, depicting fragments of ancient cloths, buttons, jewellery and other everyday items.

In the year of 1249 the French crusader “Guillaume II de Villehardouin” built a fortress on a spur of Mount Taygetos, that came to be known as Mystras. At the foot of the fortress the inhabitants of Sparta soon settled - counting on the protection of the bourgeois - creating a new town. Ten years later “De Villehardouin” was captured by the Byzantines and as a ransom he had to hand over his possessions in the Mórea - as the Peloponnesos was then called - to Emperor Michaël Palaeologos. Mystras came under Byzantine rule and the city expanded rapidly. In its heyday there were 42.000 people living in the walled city. From 1350 to 1460 it was the residence of the Byzantine governor - called the despot - who was always the son or brother of the reigning emperor. The despots of the Despotate of the Morea decorated the city with churches, monasteries and palaces and made Mystras a centre of culture, where the decline of Constantinople was followed at a safe distance. In 1448 the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI Palaeologos, was crowned here. From 1460 to 1687 the Ottomans ruled, then the Venetians (1687 - 1715) and then again the Ottomans (1715 - 1821). The city had to endure several sieges, but the fatal blow came in 1770. During the chaos that followed the Orlofika - a Greek uprising on the Peloponnesos against Ottoman rule - the Turks sent out unregulated Albanian hordes to teach the Greeks a lesson. These looting gangs also entered Mystras and destroyed the city. This looting and the devastation during the Greek War of Independence meant the end of Mystras. Most of the inhabitants then moved to (new) Sparta, which had been built by order of the first Greek king Otto I. Nowadays Mystras is a late Byzantine ghost town, although it also has a monastery where still nuns are living. The palace and quite a lot of churches are beautifully restored and without any doubt worth a visit. In 1989 the ruins, including the fortress, palace, churches, and monasteries, were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.