The Landscape of Medieval Greece 367
When a back-water provincial town gains new life by becoming the seat
of government of a new state, the revamping of its monuments and the
concentration of teams of builders and new services obviously reinvigorates
the adjacent region. The activities that new construction projects put in motion
include the movement of people and ideas. The inevitable change in the land-
scape has long-term consequences; the influence that monuments like the
castle of Chlemoutsi and the impressive Latin churches of the Cistercians and
the mendicants exerted on the region and the locals are staggering. A recent
re-evaluation of the archaeological remains and newly excavated sites has
stressed the complexities of the transmission of skills and techniques but has
also elucidated several issues of construction.119 Demetrios Athanasoulis has
proposed that throughout the 13th century the landscape of Frankish Greece
(Epirus, the Despotate of Mistra and the Duchy of Athens) developed into a
regional artistic centre originating in the court of the princes with the sup-
port of the Greek archontes. This local architectural idiom combined creatively
French (Gothic), crusader, and Byzantine features, and was applied to build-
ings founded by Greeks and Franks alike; the fusion was gradual and depended
on the means of the patron.120
Despite the differences in scholarship and focus for Frankish Peloponnese,
Venetian Crete, and the Cycladic islands an overall view of the landscape of
medieval Greece offers valuable perspectives for understanding its history
and development. The colonial landscape of the Morea developed through
its associations with mainland Greece, Naples, and France. Linguistic, social,
cultural, and economic forces demanded an orientation towards the crusader
Eastern Mediterranean region and stronger ties to the Byzantine heritage of
the Peloponnese. The colonies of Venice worked as parts of an imperial mari-
time network. The long coexistence between Venetians and locals on Crete
allowed the locals to find ways to accommodate their needs and to adjust their
lives within the framework of Venetian rule. By cooperating with the authori-
ties in agricultural production and the distribution of goods the locals cham-
pioned their active involvement in agriculture, manufacture, and trade as a
119 Grossman, “Syncreticism Made Concrete,” pp. 65–73; Dimitris Theodosopoulos, “Aspects
of Transfer”; Georgopoulou, “Vernacular Architecture,” pp. 447–80; and Demetrios
Athanasoulis, “Η Ναοδομία στην Επισκοπή Ωλένης κατά την μέση και ύστερη βυζαντινή
περίοδο” [“Church Construction in the Diocese of Olena during the Middle and Late
Byzantine Period”] (unpublished doctoral thesis, Aristotelian University of Thessalonica,
2006).
120 Athanasoulis, “The Triangle of Power,” p. 142.