Mystras [antikvár]

AUTHOR'S PREFACE More than thirty years have elapsed since the author first wrote a guide to Mystras. In these decades much work has been carried out by the archaeologists successively in charge of the ruins of the byzantine city. All of them were young men at the time of their appointment, and all have worked with enthusiasm not only to excavate, but also to consolidate decaying buildings, to repair the roofs of churches against the penetration of damp and to clean and restore the wall paintings. Indeed, the murals have been so much renovated that they have almost regained their pristine condition. In these same years the author has widened his acquaintance with byzantine monuments and furthered his knowledge in related fields. But he has never ceased to visit and re-visit Mystra, and to ponder and review the problems posed by its monuments and, naturally, to consider their significance for the art of the epoch they represent. The same problems have occupied the minds of other scholars (see bibliography), and a summary of the conclusions reached by such researches is to be found in this small book. Matiolis Chatzidakis