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\ Crete
(1) / \Cyclades
(2) / \ Dodecanese
(3) / \ Peloponnese
(4) / \ Attica
(5) / \ Central
Greece (6) / \ Epirus
(7) / \ Ionian Islands
(8) / \ Thessaly
(9) / \ Evia
& the Sporades (10) / \ Macedonia
(11) / \ Thrace
(12) / \ NE
Aegean (13) /
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Grecian
Net © All rights reserved 2002
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The
castle of Mistras was built by the Franks in 1249 in their attempt
to establish their supremacy over the Peloponnese. Their catastrophic
defeat at Pelagonia (1259) forced them to hand over Mistra to
the Greeks. The Frankish prince Guillaume de Villehardouin erected
the castle. He built bastions for his knights, houses, dungeons,
storerooms, courtyards. From up here he ruled over the world of
the Evrotas. As time went by, houses were built on the hillside
under the Frankish castle, and a town was born whose fate was
to become the centre of civilisa- tion and the cradle of the last
dynasty of the Byzantine emperors. The houses roundabout are of
two or three storeys. With their imposing vaulted roofs and arcades
these mansions lead up to the Palace, an architectural creation
of the Palaiologues. 
The
throne room, the chapel with its vestiges of Byzantine frescoes,
the rooms lighted by large windows with ogival arches, are some
of the features of this building whose construction took place
in various periods, according to the style prevalling in Constantinople.
During its two centuries of Mistras' existence as the Byzantine
capital of the Peloponnese many churches and monasteries with
domes and chapeis were erected, representing aIi the painting
trends of the capital. The most important monument you meet on
your way up - and the first to be built - is the Cathedral of
Agios iìmitrios. On the floor of the church is the two-headed
eagle, symbol of the Palaiologos dynasty, carved into a plaque.
According to tradition, this is where Konstantinos stepped when
he was crowned King. Next to it stands the carved throne. In 1449,
Konstantinos Palaiologos was crowned emperor of Byzantium and
he left Mistras for Constantinople. In 1453 the Turks captured
Constantinople, and a few years later, in 1460, the same fate
befell Mistras. Mistras, the brilliant capital of the Despotate
of the Morea, was reduced to an insignificant village. The frescoes
in the Cathedral show a shining sky painted by skilfull hands.
One wing of the church houses the Museum. Towards the northern
corner of the enclosure stand Mistras' two most impressive churches,
Agioi Theodori and the Panagia Odigitria, known as the Afentiko.
Its wall paintings hold you spellbound. Near the highest gate
of the castle stands the church of Agia Sofia, while on the slope
to the east is the Panta- nassa monastery, built by the lords
of the l5th century. 
The
church is impressive in its elegance and refinement. Its frescoes
are filled with bright colour and movement. The Pantanassa today
is a hospitable convent with clean cells looked after by gentle
nuns, the only living beings in Mistras. Strolling through the
narrow lanes of the dead city, you finally come to the Perivlepto,
the monastery built under a rock with marvellous frescoes. It
is from here that the ascent to the castle begins. Winding stair-
ways, arcades, coutyards. Everything in ruins: crumbling facades,
turrets with ravaged opening, damaged plaques, decayed mansions.
At some point you reach the bare part of the mountain. Below you
stretches the endless valley. In front of you a steep path leads
to the top of the hill. In an impregnable position, its ramparts
and fortification impose themseives on the landscape. The security
this castle offered in the face of foreign and local enemies permitted
its bishops, lords, enlightened clerics, founders of schools of
philosophy, monks, artists, writers and other men of intellect,
like Pachomius, Nikephoros Moschopoulos and Gemistos Plethon to
transform this town, "protected by God", into a cradle
of the Re- naissance. Southeastern Laconia The farthest finger
of the Peloponnese. The Laconic guif on the west, the Mirtoo sea
on the east. Along both coasts and at some distance from the sea
there are scattered villages. One beach after another and then
another even larger. Everything baked by the sun and basted by
the sea. On the southern coast of the peninsula, looking onto
the Mirtoo sea, stands the former Byzantine-Venetian fortress-state
of Monemvassia, on its rocky promontory. From afar it looks as
if it could be an island. In Greek Monemvassia means one entrance:
the long causeway joining it to the mainland was and is the only
access to the roc.