Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book investigates Athens in the middle Byzantine period, from the mid-10th century to 1204, the date of the city s conquest by the Crusaders. Using the surviving architectural remains as well as the scarce relevant literary sources, the volume also provides a summary of all recent bibliographical references by modern researchers and scholars. During this period Athens, although deprived of its ancient status, was still an important city of the Byzantine empire - it was the base of the Metropolitan (the city s bishop); housed the local aristocracy; and was the destination of the annual Christian pilgrimage to the church dedicated to the Virgin in the Parthenon. This book defines the built-up areas, streets and fortifications of medieval Athens and explores the evidence for the architectural plans of Byzantine houses. Above all, it studies the nearly 40 churches functioning in that period and suggests plans for others which had been destroyed. This volume constitutes an invaluable and unique compendium of current knowledge on Byzantine Athens.
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Synopsis
In this masterful synthesis, Charalambos Bouras draws together material and textual evidence for Athens in the Middle Byzantine period, from the mid-tenth century to 1204, when it was conquered by Crusaders. What emerges from his meticulous investigation is an urban fabric surprisingly makeshift in its domestic sector yet exuberantly creative in its ecclesiastical architecture. Rather than viewing the city as a mere shadow of its ancient past, Bouras demonstrates how Athens remained an important city of the Byzantine Empire as the seat of a metropolitan, home to local aristocracy, and pilgrimage destination for those who came to worship at the Christian Parthenon. Byzantine Athens explores the relationship of the Byzantine infrastructure to earlier configurations, shedding light on the water supply, industrial facilities, streets and fortifications of medieval Athens, and exploring the evidence for the form and typology of Byzantine houses. Thanks to Bouras s indefatigable study of all available archaeological reports the first part of the book offers an overall picture of the Middle Byzantine city. The second part presents a fully documented and illustrated catalogue of nearly 40 churches, including synthetic treatments of their typology and morphology set in the wider Byzantine architectural context. Finally, Bouras joins his unrivalled knowledge of the surviving remains and exhaustive scrutiny of the relevant scholarship to offer a historical interpretation of the Athenian monuments. Byzantine Athens is a unique achievement that will remain an invaluable compendium of our knowledge of one of the most complex, yet relatively unknown, Byzantine cities.
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