The Landscape of Medieval Greece 357
village churches in the later 13th century also suggests that Latin rule created
the socio-economic conditions that allowed for their flourishing. Fifty-one
churches of the 13th century with donor inscriptions have been surveyed by
Sophia Kalopissi-Verti: twenty-nine churches were in the Byzantine Empire
proper (concentrated in Lakonia after the return of Monemvasia, Mistra,
Geraki and Maina to the Byzantines in 1262) and 22 in regions under Latin rule
(five of them on Crete and six on Naxos).85 Situated in rural areas, these were
single-nave churches, barrel-vaulted and modest in size, suggesting a homo-
geneous cultural level of the donors and users of these provincial churches.
In general the simple architecture of the churches (which in their majority
are single-aisled or modest, additive buildings), the irregularities in plan, the
thick masonry walls with few openings and the minimal ornamental sculp-
tural designs on their portals and windows point to a local workforce using
the indigenous stone construction technique without complex architectural
planning.86 Various factors indicate a “democratisation” of patronage and an
expansion of the class of individuals who funded the construction and painted
decoration of the churches: (a) the wide ranging discrepancy in the quality of
painting in the 13th century seems to be a result of the broadening of the social
range of patronage (wealth and social rank); (b) the decentralising historical
and social developments after the Fourth Crusade allowed Greek local nobil-
ity (landowners, provincial magnates, and wealthy individuals) not connected
to the Byzantine imperial family to gain prominence;87and (c) by the end of
the 13th century donors’ names are not accompanied by a title on inscriptions
suggesting an even more expansive group of patrons from a lower class. On
the islands (especially Naxos and Crete) and in the Peloponnesian Mani com-
mon people (laymen and clergy) are the ones who pay for the painting or the
Sharon Gerstel is preparing a monograph on Landscapes of the Village: The Devotional Life
and Setting of the Late Byzantine Peasant.
85 Sophia Kalopissi-Verti, Dedicatory Inscriptions and Donor Portraits in Thirteenth-
Century Churches of Greece (Vienna, 1992), pp. 34–35 and 41. On Geraki see Nikolaos C.
Moutsopoulos and Georgios N. Dimitrokallis, Γεράκι: οι εκκλησίες του οικισμού /Geraki: les
églises du bourgade (Thessalonica, 1981).
86 Klaus Gallas, Mittel- und spätbyzantinische Sakralarchitektur der Insel Kreta: Versuch einer
Typologie der kretischen Kirchen des 10. bis 17. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1983); and Kostas
Lassithiotakis, “Οι κυριαρχούντες τύποι χριστιανικών ναών από τον 12o αιώνα και εντεύθεν
στη Δυτική Κρήτη” [“The Principal Types of Christian Churches since the 12th Century in
Western Crete”], Κρητικά Χρονικά, 15–16 (1961–62), 173–201.
87 Kalopissi-Verti, Dedicatory Inscriptions, pp. 33 and 44. Excluding some of the founda-
tions in the Despotate of Epirus, which were founded by the despots, local elite shone in
Castoria between the battle of Pelagonia (1259) and the Serbian conquest of 1342 during a
time of prosperity when it was again part of the Byzantine Empire.