Chapel B'-Hagia Anna-Hagios Georgios-Hai-Yannakis
| Department | Archive |
|---|---|
| Collection | Byzantine Research Fund |
| Reference No. | BRF/01/01/14/039 |
| Level | Item |
| Place |
Mystras Hagios Georgios chapel |
| Dates | 1890? |
| Donor/Creator |
Weir Schultz, Mr Robert Barnsley, Mr Sidney Howard |
| Scope and Content | Upper row: Ground plans and elevations of Chapel B' (on the left) and Hagia Anna (on the right). Lower row: Ground plans of Hagios Georgios (left) and Hai-Yannakis (right). The drawing is entitled in pencil: 'Mistras - Small Churches'. It is numbered (no 1) in pencil in the upper right-hand corner. Further annotation in pencil survives. |
| Further information | Mistras, one of the most important medieval cities of Morea, lies four miles north-west of present-day Sparta on the summit of a Taygetos hill. The first building to be erected by William II Villehardouin, the Frankish Prince of Achaia in the location was the castle (1249). Soon, a settlement was established outside the citadel- most of the churches and chapels stand outside it too. After the recapture of Morea by the Byzantines in 1262 Mistras became the headquarters of the Byzantine general and, later, the seat of the Lakedaimonian bishopic. During the 14th c. it was the capital of the Despotate of Mistras and flourished under the Kantakouzenoi and the Palaiologoi reign until its fall to the Turks in 1460. The Mistras chapels (around twenty in total) are small, usually, single cell private buildings principally funerary in character: numerous constantly re-used tombs have been excavated both inside and outside these monuments. Their identification is arbitrary: some are known by the names assigned to them by the local community in modern times. The single cell chapel which was assigned the name ‘Chapel B’ by G. Millet, lies south of the castle wall close to Pantanassa. The east side of the monument terminates in a single polygonal apse: two niches in the east wall were used as the prothesis and the diakonikon. Another niche is located close to the north-west corner. The entrance to the chapel is on the north side as the west wall is built into a Taygetos rock. Hagia Anna lies close to the present-day convent of Pantanassa. An impressive brickwork frieze representing ‘the Greeks’ decorates the monument. The small but gracefully proportioned barrel-vaulted chapel of Hagios Georgios lies near Perivleptos. It is a double-nave church with lateral adjoining narthex and engaging zigzag brick patterns and dentil courses on the exterior walls. An apsed propylon stands on the north side. The monument and its fresco decoration that dates to the 15th c. has been restored and cleaned of earth and debris. Hai-Yannakis is a small barrel-vaulted church outside the walls close to present-day Marmara. Three cruciform apses with blind apsidioles enliven the interior. Fifteenth-century frescoes, well-known for their originality, decorate the interior walls: the founder Kali and her children are portraited in the west apse of the south wall. The building has been dated to the 15th c. |