Three decades of research into your miracle Secrets during two centuries of Byzantine presence (1262-1460) this is the work of a lifetime. For Byzantine scholar Stavros I. Arvanitopoulos it is a constant feedback as Mystra’s painstaking research, autopsy and research are part of everyday life. A large two-volume work recently published by the Cultural Resources Management and Development Agency brings together his research and makes it available to the public.

A study by Stavros I. Arvanitopoulos was published under the title “City of Mystras (1262-1460). Urban organization and functioning of the late Byzantine urban complex” includes all the stages and fruits of the study. “It took a systematic, persistent, painstaking study of the written sources of the entire era of the Palaeologists, in order, on the one hand, to exclude any mention of the city of Mistra and the Peloponnese, and on the other, to collect all the names of people who stayed even for a few days in Mystra for two centuries Byzantine presence (1262-1460),” says Stavros I. Arvanitopoulos.

The presentation of the publication took place on April 1 in Mistra, at the Research Institute of Byzantine Culture, by the head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Laconia, Dr. Evangelia Pantu, Byzantine archaeologist Dr. Aspasia Luvi-Kyzis (herself the author of the study “The Frankish Challenge in Byzantine Mistra”, published by the Academy of Athens, 2019 d.) and Associate Professor of the Technical University of Crete Dr. Klimis Aslanidis. The coordinator was Professor Nikolaos Zaharias, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Peloponnese and Director of the Institute for the Study of Byzantine Culture.

“It took a systematic, persistent, painstaking study of the written sources of the entire era of the paleologists,” says Stavros I. Arvanitopoulos.

Stavros I. Arvanitopoulos, proceeding first from personal interest and then for the needs of his doctoral dissertation (EKPA School of Philosophy, 2004), never stopped studying Mistra, even delving into the anthropogeography of the region. “It was necessary to know the human factor in order to combine it with the material remains of the area and, thus, to have the most complete picture of the daily life of the settlement. Comparison with 49 other cities of the same period was also extremely laborious, but this was the only way to place Mystra in its own time and understand its meaning, as well as allow the elements found in it to be interpreted.

The first volume of the work presents the natural and built environment, as well as the human resources of the state in the period under consideration (1262-1460). The emphasis is on the architectural physiognomy of Mistra, the typology of buildings and residential units with an analysis of the urban organization. Of particular interest is the comparison of Mistra with other urban complexes of the wider Late Byzantine world. The second volume includes topographical plans and more than 1100 photographs documenting the materials of the first volume.

“The most rewarding job is undoubtedly the autopsy,” says Stavros I. Arvanitopoulos. “Despite the extreme difficulties and the many years of negative attitude of the responsible body (which, fortunately, has been completely changed in recent years under the leadership of the current head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Laconia, Dr. Gospel Pandu), contact with the locality, with the built-up and natural environment, with those small (maybe to the general public, insignificant) details that are still preserved in these venerable buildings, the myriad problems generated by field research at the moment of solving a single question, the constant difficulty in understanding and interpreting the way the buildings were built, the use, the original form, the successive stages, their relationship with neighbors or with others in the same or other urban ensembles, ultimately the revival of an era through what has managed to reach our days is a unique challenge.”