Pantanassa convent
Still working, with some of the finest surviving frescoes.
Joyofmuseums โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Jean Housen โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Jean Housen โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Jean Housen โ CC BY-SA 4.0
Entry is **about โฌ12** in season. โ **โ The site is an entire mountainside** with a large height difference between the lower entrance and the castle โ **stone steps and uneven ramps the whole way**; **entirely unsuitable for a wheelchair or pushchair** and hard on knees. โ **โ A decisive tip: the site has two entrances, lower and upper.** **Go in at the top and walk down**: take a car or taxi to the **upper entrance** near the castle and descend on foot to the lower gate โ saving an hour of hard climbing. Arrange for someone to meet you at the bottom. โ **Little shade** โ avoid midday in summer; **spring, autumn and winter are far better** here. โ **No flash in the churches**, and **Pantanassa is a working convent** requiring modest dress and quiet. โ **Some churches close at midday.** Allow **at least three hours**.
๐ฌ Ask on WhatsAppOpen in Google Maps โ**A complete Byzantine city on a mountainside, abandoned and left standing** โ a **UNESCO World Heritage Site**, and the most important survival of late Byzantine civilisation anywhere. The Franks built it in **1249** and the Byzantines took it back, making it **the capital of the Despotate of the Morea** โ and in its last two centuries it became **the Byzantine empire's final great cultural centre**: philosophers, schools and painters, while Constantinople was dying. Here **the last Byzantine emperor**, Constantine XI, was crowned in 1449 โ four years before Constantinople fell. What you see today is **a whole city on a slope**: the rulers' palace, houses, lanes and walls โ and **six churches and monasteries** with exceptionally preserved frescoes: **Pantanassa** (still a working convent), **Peribleptos**, partly cut into the rock, the **Metropolis**, and **Hodegetria**. โ The site is **steeply sloping** throughout. โ And a Frankish **castle** crowns the summit.
Still working, with some of the finest surviving frescoes.
Partly cut into the rock, its frescoes nearly complete.
The restored ruling complex in the middle of the sloping city.
Mystras, 23100 Lakonia, Greece
**Because it is the one place where you can walk inside a Byzantine city.** โ **The general problem**: Byzantine civilisation lasted a thousand years, but its major cities either **stayed inhabited and were built over** (Constantinople became Istanbul; Thessaloniki is a modern city) **or disappeared**. So what usually survives is **scattered churches inside modern towns** โ not urban fabric. โ **Mystras is the exception**: it was abandoned in the 19th century **all at once**, when its people moved to the new Sparti, **and nothing was built over it**. So the city stayed as it was: a palace, houses, lanes, walls and six churches โ **a complete fabric**. โ **Its second importance is historical**: in its final century it was **the last Byzantine intellectual flowering** โ home to the philosopher **Plethon**, who later influenced the Italian Renaissance. โ **So anyone wanting to understand Byzantium** will find no better place, and nothing close to it.
**With one decision that saves you an hour of exhaustion: enter at the top.** โ **The ideal arrangement**: drive or take a taxi to the **upper entrance** (near the castle) โ buy your ticket there, start at the **castle** at the highest point with the best view, then **walk down**: the palace, the upper town, Pantanassa, Peribleptos, the Metropolis, and out through the **lower gate**. โ **Arrange for someone to meet you at the bottom**, or a taxi โ otherwise you will have to climb back to your car. โ **Why this matters**: the two entrances are **hundreds of metres apart in height** on stone steps; climbing from the bottom costs an hour and drains you before you reach the churches. โ **On timing**: **do not visit at midday in July or August** โ the slope is exposed and the heat in the Laconian plain is among the highest in Greece. โ **Spring and autumn are its best seasons**, and it is very beautiful on a **clear winter day**, when snow covers Mount Taygetos behind it.
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