Google MapMystras, the byzantine castletown
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Information- Timetable Mystras- Archaeological Museum of Mystras Winter: From 1/11 to 31/3: 08:00-15:00 Summer: From 1/4 to 31/8: 08:00 - 20:00 From 1/9 to 15/9: 08:00 - 19:30 From 16/9 to 30/9: 08:00 - 18:30 From 1/10 to 31/10: 08:00 - 17:30 Sundays and national days: From 1/4 to 31/10: 08:00 - 17:30 * Due to possible schedule changes, please call for exact hours. |
Magnificent and impressive , distant and yet so close . Real time , the state still lies on the slopes of the steep strange hill with the castle on top.
Just 5 km northwest of Sparta time has stopped , but in the golden pages of history.
Mystras the " theofrouritos country Myzithras " the base of the Despotate of Peloponnese , the last cradle of Byzantine Empire , still lives in the historical memory and consciousness of people.
The visit at Mystras, transports the visitor to another dimension,
in the era of the Byzantine Empire.
With the fortifications and churches palaces, mansions and houses , in the streets and fountains of causes daily amazement to thousands of visitors , but also provides valuable insight on the development and culture of Byzantium . Two centuries on the stage of history , he composed a unique path of glory , splendor and supply - political social and cultural .
The starting point in the 13th century when the Franks dominated the Peloponnese. In 1249 Villehardouin II built an impregnable castle on the hilltop with Mystras name or Mizithras .
Ten years later he was captured the emperor of Byzantium Michael Paleologos , bought his freedom, giving the castles of Mistras Monemvasia and Mani . Mystras offered security , resulting in the residents of the neighboring Lacedaemon , as then called Sparta , build their houses on the slopes around the castle .
The settlement Chora, protected by a wall , but the new houses were built from the outside. Another wall protected the new district , Lower Town . With the generals permanent commanders since 1308 and the seat of Metropolis has been transported from Lacedaemon , Mystras became in the 13th century capital of the Peloponnese , the seat of the Despotate of Morea with Annuity Lord
First Master 1348 Manuel second son of Emperor John Kantakouzenos and second Matthew in 1380. Then came the time of Paleologos, with the despot Theodore I, son of Emperor John Palaeologus and his successors Theodore II in 1407 and Constantine Paleologos in 1443.
All these years, Mystras experienced glory despite external risks. The dominance was spread almost throughout the Peloponnese and became a center of political and intellectual life field to regenerate the letters and arts. Here founding the famous philosophical school of the Gemistus Pletho. On January 6 January 1449 the Metropolis of Mystras, Agios Dimitrios, Constantinos Paleologos was crowned emperor and left for Istanbul, for death and glory in the fall of 1453. But Mystras fell ingloriously.
The new Bishop Dimitrios surrendered without a fight the impregnable castle in Mehmed II. During the Turkish rule, the city was still flourishing, with 42,000 inhabitants. After the failure of the uprising of 1770 were 8,000. Poor but courageous and Mystras offered the War of 1821, but in 1825 the Egyptians Ibrahim burned down the town
The residents started leaving . Others settled lower in New Mystras. And others returned to the banks of the Eurotas to create the new Sparta. In the Byzantine state abandonment gave way to wear and tear
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