Mystras Ghost Town

Being in Sparti (Sparta), one cannot help staring at the imposing Mt. Taygetos to the nortwest. Sloping down to the city, the more than 2400m (7200ft) mountain, austere yet somehow friendly, forms a number of hills, forested or not, with houses scattered in the greenery. We are able to discern a village some 6 km (3.7 miles) away... but what are these half-demolished walls and figures of Byzantine churches near it?

Well, it is the Medieval deserted city of Mystras, well worth a visit. It will take us less than 10 minutes to get there by car; taking a walk to it, though, is much more rewarding round the year, especially in the Spring. It takes one and a half to two hours to promenade along the road, some parts of which are only for pedestrians.

Walking up the softly uphill trail, we have a chance to brush up our high-school or college history. The Castle of Mystras was one of the many fortifications built throughout Greece during the Venetian (and generally Frankish) occupation, a period referred to here as 'Frankocracy' (in analogy to Democracy or Bureaucracy). Most of these castles were built on spots accessed with difficulty, usually on steep hilltops. Such places had, of course, been fortified since Prehistoric times; after the first cities were formed, being on the edge of them, they were named Acropoleis (plural of Acropolis). On the same spots and using also the pre-existing building materials, the Franks, after the fall of Constantinople in their hands in 1204, during the 4^th Crusade, wherever their interests called for, erected defense castles which, actually, were meant to keep their occupation garrisons protected against local revolts. We must be thankful that Athens was, at that point, a humble unimportant village, away from all commercial routes of the time; had it been otherwise, the elegant Parthenon would today be demolished and its architectural fragments incorporated in a, God knows how menacing, Medieval castle.

It was in 1249 that the Frankish leader William II de Villearduin had this impregnable castle and Palace built here, to protect the seat of the newly established (1205) Latin Principality of Achaia (or Achaea). Twelve years later, though, he was taken prisoner in Pelagonia and the Latins were forced to cede Mystras, together with two more forts in the southeastern Peloponnese, in exchange for his freedom. Michael VIII Palaeologos established the new Despotate of Moreas, a Byzantine niche surrounded by territory under Latin control. Ruled by members of the family of the Byzantine Emperors, Mystras prospered becoming the center of the economic and cultural life of the Peloponnese. A second defensive wall had to be built, to enring the much bigger settlement and improve its defensive role. In 1448 the last Emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI Palaeologos was crowned here at Mystras. Ioannis Gemistos Plethon, a philosoper who even influenced the Renaissance in Italy, lived and died here in 1452. Greek-Orthodox churches were built, full with Byzantine art frescoes, during this time of prosperity. They are today preserved for visitors to admire their exquisite technique. This period of grandeur ended in 1460, when Mystras was surrendered to Mehmed II, Ottoman Emperor who had occupied Constantinople in 1453 and almost the whole of the Balkans.

Under Turkish occupation it was the center of the economic life in the Peloponnese and its domination a matter of continuous warfare between the Turks and the Venetians. It was among the first castles to be liberated in 1821, during the Greek national indepence revolution against the Ottomans. The foundation of modern Sparti (Sparta) in 1834 marked the end of the old town's life. It had, though, received fatal blows by plunderers and self appointed “researchers”: among them a French Father Superior, reporting to the king Louis of France himself, who paid enormous sums of money to workers to chisel away any epigraph he would come across, after reading it and documenting it, so that nobody else be able to read the carved epigraph again. There are texts of his (reports to his King) where he boasts that he has not left a single marble stone in position! Such lunatics, greed and plundering have inflicted more damage to the cultural heritage of the Balkans than time, earthquakes and the elements of Nature combined!

Nowadays, only the churches stand, reminiscent of the old glorious times. The Palaces and other buildings suffered much graver damage, the churches themselves had to undergo major preservation works; the eyes of the Saints in the Byzantine icons were scraped away by religious fanatic vandals. One is overwhelmed at once, however, by the serenity and grandiosity of the deserted and destroyed city. One strolls up or down the paved tiny streets, camera in hand, and can almost hear children cackle at play, people singing during their festivities, horse's hooves clapping the cobblestones, and swords clanging against iron armor. One begins to understand why cypress trees have taken over.

Text: Michael Tziotis