International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Lioba Theis
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria;
[e-mail]
Change of Sacred Spaces in the 13
th
Century: The Impact of Light
Among the consequences of the Latin occupation of Constantinople from 1204 to 1261 is a 
striking change in Byzantine sacred architecture in the capital. Of the extant buildings that were 
constructed in the capital following the period of Latin rule, most are considered to be renovations 
of older complexes. These “new buildings” are often associated with the addition of funerary chapels 
adjacent to standing churches (for example, the south church of Lips monastery, the parekklesion 
on the south side of the katholikon of Pammakaristos monastery, or the parekklesion of Chora 
monastery). Generally, they are recognizable by their finely and delicately structured external 
facades, whose niches, cornices and pilasters transform these surfaces into a play of light and 
shadow. A variety of different light and shadow spaces also characterizes the carefully segmented 
interiors of these constructions. The conscious manipulation of light obviously played a decisive 
role in the overall conception of these new sacred spaces. Subsequent alterations of existing sacred 
buildings in the capital during the Palaiologan period, notably the reduction of the size of windows, 
also demonstrate that a different type of light effect was sought even in older buildings (Hagia 
Sophia, the katholikon of Myrelaion monastery, Atik Mustafa Paşa Camii).
This contribution will demonstrate how this change can also be seen in newly constructed 
sacred architecture of mainland Greece, in such different entities of the now-fragmented Byzantine 
territory as Epirus, the Peloponnese and Macedonia.

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32
Tassos Papacostas
King’s College London, London, United Kingdom;
[e-mail]
The Use of Sacred Space by a Society in Motion
In most formerly Byzantine-ruled areas the post-1204 period was experienced as one of 
rapid and successive changes in political structures, social organization, accessibility to cultural 
references and also building and artistic practices and norms. By the end of the century these areas 
and the populations inhabiting them had been radically reorganized. Long established sacred space, 
whether in a rural or urban milieu, sometimes remained unaffected; but in many cases it changed 
hands, and was adapted or its erstwhile function was altered to respond to a different set of needs 
and concerns. Unsurprisingly, the attendant architectural framework evolved accordingly.
In this presentation I will employ a small number of examples from Cyprus, a province that 
was lost to the empire a few years prior to 1204, to investigate the modes through which processes 
such as abandonment, continuity of occupation, reconfiguration or valorization occurred, and 
the latter’s impact on the buildings themselves. In fact, in the frequent absence of explicit textual 
testimonies, it is the architecture that speaks most eloquently of these developments. My discussion 
will revolve to a large extent around the church of the Transfiguration in the village of Sotera, near 
the island’s south-east coast. A project directed by Prof. Maria Parani (University of Cyprus) is 
currently underway, with the aim of disentangling the history of the monument and its decoration, 
and their place within the local and wider Levantine context. The history of occupation of the site 
itself, culminating in the erection and subsequent rearrangement of the present church, offers ample 
evidence which I will endeavour to assess and juxtapose with that from sites elsewhere.