Εμφανίζονται 1 τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Ιστορία στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΜΥΣΤΡΑΣ Χωριό ΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣΟΣ" .
ΜΥΣΤΡΑΣ (Βυζαντινός οικισμός) ΠΕΛΟΠΟΝΝΗΣΟΣ
This text is cited Apr 2003 from the Laconian Professionals URL below, which contains image.
In 1204 the Western participants of the Fourth Crusade, ignoring their
principal objective, captured Constantinople, extended their dominion over the
Greek lands and founded the Latin Empire of Romania. The Byzantine court was compelled
to seek refuge in neighboring Nicaea. From there the Greeks waged an arduous and
unrelenting struggle for about sixty years, until the capital was reconquered
and the Emperor once more ascended his throne.
Of all the states founded by the Franks, the most important was the
French Principality of the Morea. Its Prince, Geoffroy de Villehardouin, in his
endeavor to impose his authority on the entire Peloponnese, was at great pains
to conquer Lacedaemon; but it was only in 1248 that his successor, William II
de Villehardouin, succeeded in effecting the conquest of Laconia, with the reduction
of the fortes of Monembassia. A year later (1249), perceiving the strategic importance
of the hill of Mystra, he raised a castle, the ruins of which survive to this
day, on its summit.
According to a typical descriptive passage in the Chronicle of the
Morea: "After searching through these parts, He found a strange hill, as
though cut off from the mountain, About a mile away, above Lacedaemonia. Wishing
to fortify this hill, he ordered a castle to be built on its summit And he named
it Myzethra, for that was how they called it, And he made it a splendid castle,
with fine fortifications..."
By 1249 French knights clad in coats-of-mail had thus encamped on
the hill of Mystra in order to "guard the place
The name Mystra probably derived from the shape of the hill, which
resembled that of a Myzethra (popular cheese), or from some local governor whom
the Franks found there and whose name was either Myzethra or profession that of
a maker of myzethra cheeses.
Ten years later, in 1259 Villehardouin was taken prisoner at the battle
of Pelagonia and held captive for three years by the Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus.
In the meantime, the Byzantines had recaptured Constantinople from the Franks,
and the Emperor put pressure to bear on William to pay ransom for his release
y the cession of the castles of the Peloponnese. William finally agreed to purchase
his liberty and that of his barons in exchange for the cession of such castles
in Laconia as he would designate. According to the Chronicle of Morea, he decided:
"To give to the Emperor in exchange for their liberty, The castles of Monembassia
and le Grand-Maigne And, last of all, the most beautiful, that of Myzetha itself".
Thus in 1262 the Greeks became masters of the castle and Byzantine
Mystra entered into its golden age.
But Villehardouin, now at liberty returned to the Peloponnese, in
an attempt to appease his allies who regarded the agreement as the first step
in a Byzantine attempt to break up the French Principality of the Morea. At the
head of a military contingent, he soon made his appearance in the Lacadaemonian
plain. What his intentions really were are not known.
The Byzantine garrison of Mistra immediately informed Constantinople
that Villehardouin had violated the agreement and was preparing to attack the
castle. The infuriated Emperor sent a strong force under General Macrinos, who
landed at Monemvasia, with orders to deal a mortal blow at Villehardouin. Two
years, however, passed without any decisive change being effected in the disposition
of the opposing forces.
Finally, in 1264, the Byzantine army, provoked by Villehardouin, was
compelled to fight at Macryplaghi - in the defile which leads from Megalopolis
and Leondari to the Messenian plain - where it was annihilated. General Macrinos
was taken prisoner by the Franklin prince.
After this victory, William did in effect consider launching an attack
on Mystra.; but a revolt of the natives of Arcadia, which he could not ignore,
caused him to postpone the enterprise.
The constant friction and frequent campaigns between Byzantines and
Franks during the course of these two years created a feeling of insecurity among
the inhabitants of lacedaemonia, as Sparta was called in the Middle Ages. They
consequently begun to abandon their homes in the plain and to settle at the foot
of the hill, where they felt more secure under the shallow of the castle of Mystra.
Thus, long before 1300 - more precisely, in the years following the
battle of Macryplaghi - Mystra had begun to be inhabited. Churches and houses
too soon began to dot the hillside. William II de Villedardouin, the Frankish
Prince, had died in 1278, and after his death the Morea became a dependency of
the Angevin House of Naples.
With the continuous decline of Frankish power - not only in Laconia
but throughout Greece - Mystra's role in the revived Byzanitne Empire soon acquired
a new and highly significant aspect. In the course of two centuries it became
"the Florence of the East" and the intellectual movements it engendered
and fostered came to the regarded with respect beyond the boundaries of the Byzantine
Empire and throughout the countries of the West. Furthermore, Mystra was to set
the seal on its brief but brilliant history.
From 1264 to 1300 Mystra was the headquarters of a Strategus with
the title of Cephali. His term of office lasted only one year but his range of
authority was considerable. In 1308 the administrative system underwent a change.
The strategoi no longer gave up office at the end of a year but became permanent
governors of an unlimited term. It was in this capacity that Cantacuzenus (1308-1316)
and Andronicus Palaeologus Asan (1316-1323) ruled at Mistra. The new form of administration
contributed much to the development of the fortified city, where, even before
the mid 14th century, building activity was on a by no means negligible scale.
Numerous churches were raised and the Metropolitan Bishop of Lacedaemonia
transferred the seat of his diocese to Mystra. The momentum of architectural activity
increased and the town, which was becoming both a political center and a military
headquarters, developed rapidly. By the mid-14th century Mystra attainted the
status of a capital of a Greek principality, called a Despotate. It was no longer
governed by a Strategus, but a nobleman closely related to the imperial family
with the title of Despot and a life-long tenure of office. In 1348 Manuel, second
son of the Emperor John VI Cantacuzenus, assumed office as first Despot of Mystra
amid scenes of considerable pomp. During his reign the state flourished and Mystra
was embellished with new churches and buildings. In 1380 Manuel was succeeded
by Matthew Catacuzenus. In 1383 Catacuzenoi were replaced by Palaeologoi, of whom
the first Despot was Theodore I Palaeologus (1383 - 1407) and the second Theodore
II Palaeologus (1407 - 1443).
In 1443, in the last twilight years of the Empire, Constantine XI
Palaeologus, subsequently martyr and last emperor, was crowned Despot. This intelligent
prince assumed a heavy responsible towards the Byzantine world, which was already
in full decline. Consistently endeavoring to hold on to the last remnants of the
once all-powerful Empire, he aimed at protecting the Peloponnese at least for
the menace of Ottoman invasion. He therefore strengthened the fortifications and
concluded military agreements. He also rebuild the Hexamilion wall on the isthmus
of Corinth and made contact with the Pope with a view to forming an alliance with
Hungary. But Sultan Murad II, anxious to secure his rear from such an active and
dangerous opponent, arrived in the Peloponnese in 1446 with strong forces and
obliged Constantine to pay tribute to him.
Two years later (in 1448) the Emperor John VIII Palaelogus died and
was succeeded by his brother Constantine. On 6 January 1449 the noblemen Alexius
Philanthropinos and Manuel Cantacuzenus arrived at Mystra from Constantinople
"in order to crown the Despot, Noble Constantine, Emperor..." Three
months later, on 12th March, Constantine reached the great Christian capital and
ascended the throne which, in a few years time, he was to bathe with his own sacrificial
blood, after combating the enemy with prodigious valour.
At Mystra Constantine was succeeded by his younger brothers, Thomas
and Demetrius, whose melancholy fate was to end the glorious Byzantine period
of the Despotate by surrendering the fortified city to the Turks in 1460. In 1464
Mistra was besieged by Sigismund Malatesta, who captured the town, but not the
castle. After submitting the place to frightful pillage, he departed, carrying
away the mortal remains of George Gemistus (Plethon), the new-Platonic philosopher,
which he laid beside the tombs of other learned men, former members of his court,
in the magnificent church of the Tempio Maletestiano at Rimini.
Notwithstanding the Turkish occupation, the years that followed were
peaceful at Mystra. The town prospered commercially, the population reached the
figure 10.000. In 1687 Francesco Morosini, the Venetian General, succeeded in
capturing Mystra, which he made the headquarters of the Venetian governor of the
province of Braccio di Maina. But in 1715 the town once more fell to the Turks
who held it until 1770, when Count Orloff's fleet anchored off the coast of the
Mani. Russians and Greeks together besieged Mystra and compelled the Turkish garrison
to surrender. A savage massacre of Turks was only halted by the Metropolitan Bishop
himself, at the head of the clergy. A few months later Mystra, together with all
that part of the Peloponnese which had risen in arms at Orloff's instigation,
suffered the most appalling reprisals at the hands of the Turks. For ten years
Albanian bands subjected the land to pillage, arson and depopulation. During this
period the population of Mystra was considerably reduced, and after the departure
of the Albanian bands the inhabitants numbered no more than 5,000.
When the War of Independence broke out in 1821 Mystra was one of the
first towns to shake off the Turkish yoke. Throughout the war - indeed, right
up to its very end - Mystra's contribution to the national cause, both in men
and material, was considerable, despite the fact that in 1825 the original Byzantine
city had, for the last time, been burned and pillaged by Ibrahim Pasha in the
course of the Egyptian invasion of the Peloponnese.
The foundation of the modern town of Sparta by King Otho in 1834 spelt
the doom of Mystra. The first families that settled in the new urban agglomeration
in the plain came from the former Byzantine city. Others, descending the sides
of the sleep slope, built the modern village of Mistra at the foot of the hill.
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