Mystras Travel

Mystras
Suspended on the side of Taigetos Mountain, 5 km on the West side of the town of Sparta, the dead city of Mystras casts a silent gaze over the waters of Evrotas river. Once upon a time, it was the capital of Byzantine and Medieval Mystras. The entire region is protected by a powerful fort built at the top of the hill by William II of Villehardouin in 1249, which was built in the attempt of the Franks to establish their supremacy over the Peloponnese, and it is considered as the most beautiful castle of Peloponnese, as it is referred to characteristically in the Chronicle of Morias.
The beauty of the town remains unchanged. On the north part there are palaces and homes of the nobility and houses of the publicans and churches to the south. That was Pano Hora (the Highlands). At the end of the 13th century houses were also built round the outer part of the city wall, called Kato or Mesohora (Low or Midlands). At Pano Hora you will marvel at the despot’s (landlord’s) stately palace and a church dedicated to Agia Sophia (1350). You will also encounter the main chapel of the Monastery of Perivleptos (14th c) with its superb frescoes, built under a rock, which was painted during the reign of Miaouli Katakouzinos.
The most important monument you meet and the first to be built is the Cathedral of Agios Dimitrios. On the floor of the church is the two-headed eagle, symbol of the Palaiologos dynasty, carved into a plaque. According to the tradition this is where Konstantinos stepped when he was crowned King. Next to it stands the carved throne. The frescoes in the Cathedral show a shining sky painted by skilful hands. One wing of the church houses the museum. In 1449, Konstantinos Palaiologos was crowned emperor of Byzantium and he left Mystras for Constantinople. In 1453 the Turks captured Constantinople and a few years later in 1460 the same fate befell Mystras. Mystras, the brilliant capital of the Despotate of Moreas, was now reduced to an insignificant village.
Along the foothill of Mount Taigetos, known as Mizithra, the ruins of a dead Byzantine city are spread. Its fortress, palaces, mansions and dwellings of the poor, its monasteries and churches are easily seen. The castle dominates the surroundings from the summit, an excellent vantage point and an impregnable fortification, built in 1249 A.D. by William de Villehardouin. A few years later, it passed into the hands of the Byzantines and the northern sector, below the castle, began to be inhabited. In the ensuing two centuries, there came into being first the Ano Hora (Upper Town) and then the Kato Hora (Lower Town).
In Upper Mystras stood the Palace of the Despots, a rare specimen of Byzantine civic buildings, the grand hall which is well preserved. A little higher up are the remains of the palace church of Aghia Sofia. In the lower town stand the ruins of the majority of the monastic and ecclesiastic buildings.
Tradition has it that the last of the Byzantine emperors, Constantine the 12th, Palaeologos, was crowned in the Cathedral Church of Mystras, which is dedicated to the martyr Demetrios. The floor of the church is decorated with the base relief of the double-crested Eagle of Byzantium. One of the Cathedral buildings shelters the Museum which contains mostly architectural members from various other buildings. The church of the Evangelistria has beautiful sculptured decoration while the churches of Aghii Theodori and Panaghia Odigitria (also known as “Afentiko�) belong to the Vrontochi monastic complex. Built in the 13th century AD., the church of Aghii Theodori is the oldest in Mystras. A little more distant are the Pantanassa convent (the only one occupied by nuns) in whose grounds there is a very elegant designed chapel and the Perivleptos Monastery containing some of the finest frescoes to be seen in Mystras (end of 14th century, A.D.).