332 Georgopoulou
Inevitably, in the long run the landscape reflected not a constant struggle
between colonists and locals but rather their co-existence. It is usually only
after some decades of successful colonial rule, when the supremacy and con-
fidence of the colonisers have been firmly established, that a hybrid style
allowing for the intrusion of local elements may occur in the monuments of a
colony.13 Hence, the relationship between local (Greek or Byzantine) and Latin
forms was characterised by a continual give-and-take. Forms/structures do not
have a constant, unchangeable meaning. Depending on the way they are used,
and on the kinds of social relationships that are formed among the multiethnic
population certain buildings and forms take on new weight and significance.14
After several generations structures that once may have originally loomed
inimical or foreign become part and parcel of the landscape. Rigid disciplinary
categories that see East and West in sharp contrast cannot easily unpack this
diachronic function of the landscape.
Historiography
Partly because the archaeology of the Byzantine-medieval period is not very
well documented and partly because of the new architectural forms that were
transplanted on Greek soil after 1204, in the 13th century the built environment
displays a dramatic change hitherto summarised as an encounter between two
distinct artistic styles: the Byzantine and the Gothic. This is best observed in
the surviving architecture as monuments sponsored by Latins (churches and
fortifications) still make a strong visual mark on the landscape. Evidently, the
dissolution of Byzantine control in medieval Greece did not bring about an
economic collapse. On the contrary, Latin rule opened fresh economic oppor-
tunities that spearheaded new construction projects for the foreign ruling elite
and the locals alike. Local elites were resistant to change and tried to combat
the Latins but eventually colluded with the rulers to become part of a local
13 Heather Grossman, “Syncreticism Made Concrete: The Case for a Hybrid Moreote
Architecture in Post-Fourth Crusade Greece,” in Archaeology in Architecture: Papers
in Honor of Cecil L. Striker, ed. Deborah Deliyannis and Judson Emerick (Mainz, 2005),
pp. 65–73, esp. 65–66; and eadem, “Building Identity: Architecture as Evidence of Cultural
Interaction between Latins and Byzantines in Medieval Greece” (unpublished doctoral
thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2004), accessible at http://repository.upenn.edu/
dissertations/AAI3152042/.
14 Maria Georgopoulou, “Vernacular Architecture in Venetian Crete: Urban and Rural
Practices,” Medieval Encounters 18 (2012), 1–34.