Mystras
Also known as Μυστράς
1249
Byzantine
landscape
Mystras is a late-medieval fortified hill city on the northern slopes of Mount Taygetos, about six kilometres northwest of Sparta. William II de Villehardouin, Prince of Achaia, founded the upper castle in 1249 as a Frankish stronghold…
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Timeline
- 1262
Mystras passed under Byzantine control after the Frankish surrender and began its development as a Byzantine urban center on the slopes below the upper castle.
- 1349
Despotate seat. Mystras became the seat of the Despotate of the Morea, the late Byzantine successor state in the Peloponnese, and the town fabric expanded amphitheatrically around the fortress with the Palace of the Despots and the major…
- 1460-1687
Ottoman phase. The Ottomans captured the hill and held it for over two centuries, layering fabric into the lower city before a short Venetian period from 1687 to 1715.
- 1834
The foundation of modern Sparta marked the end of Mystras as a living town, and the abandoned hill city was left as an architectural record of the late Byzantine despotate.
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