Old and New

Abstract

Despite the unpleasant realities of the period, Mount Athos and other monastic centers flourished in the Late Byzantine period. Thessalonike, as the second city of the empire with a long history, witnessed much construction in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. While following the complexities of the new architecture of Constantinople, the construction in Thessalonike was primarily monastic rather than aristocratic in its patronage. By contrast, Mystras was a new city, whose organization was completely subject to the steep topography and the requirement of defense, lacking any evidence of orthogonal planning. Patronage was aristocratic, following the model of Constantinople, with which there were strong architectural connections.