A Companion to Latin Greece

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chapter 11

Monumental Art in the Lordship of Athens

and Thebes under Frankish and Catalan Rule

(1212–1388): Latin and Greek Patronage

Sophia Kalopissi-Verti

This chapter will focus on monumental art in the Lordship of Athens and
Thebes as a reflection of the encounter of the two worlds, East and West, in
the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. Chronologically it will extend from the
beginning of the 13th to about the end of the 14th century including the rule of
the Frankish lords (de la Roche, Saint Omer, de Brienne), from 1212 to 1311, and
the dominion of the Catalans, from 1311 to 1388. Geographically it will include
Attica, Boeotia and parts of the north-eastern Peloponnese (Argolis, Nauplia,
peninsula of Methana) which belonged to the de la Roche lords of Athens.
The most imposing extant Latin monuments from this period, namely the
fortifications—either newly built fortresses and towers or restored and rein-
forced Byzantine castles—bear testimony to the new rulers’ power, their needs
for defence, administration, and protection of rural products.1 Excavations
have brought to light remnants of the dwellings and storage rooms in the

1 Antoine Bon, “Fortresses médiévales de la Grèce centrale,” Bulletin de Correspondance
Hellénique 61 (1937), 136–208; Peter Lock, “The Frankish Towers of Central Greece,” Annual of
the British School at Athens 81 (1986), 101–23; idem, “The Medieval Towers of Greece: A Problem
of Chronology and Function,” in Latins and Greeks in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204,
ed. Benjamin Arbel, Bernard Hamilton and David Jacoby (London, 1989) [=Mediterranean
Historical Review 4.1 (1989)], pp. 129–45; Eleni Makri, Konstantinos Tsakos and Angeliki
Babylopoulou-Charitonidou, “Το Ριζόκαστρο. Σωζόμενα υπολείμματα: νέες παρατηρήσεις και
επαναχρονολόγηση” [“Rizokastron. The Remains: New Observations and Re-Dating”], Δελτίον
της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 14 (1987–88), 329–63; Tasos Tanoulas, “Η οχύρωση της
Αθηναϊκής Ακρόπολης από τους Φράγκους σε συνάρτηση με τα κάστρα των Σταυροφόρων στη
Μέση Ανατολή και την Κύπρο” [“The Fortification of the Athenian Acropolis by the Franks
in Conjunction with the Crusader Castles of the Middle East and Cyprus”], Πρακτικά του
Γ ́ Διεθνούς Κυπρολογικού Συνεδρίου, Λευκωσία 1996 [Proceedings of the Third International
Cyprological Congress, Nicosia 1996], 3 vols. (Nicosia, 2001), 2:18–83; idem, “The Athenian
Acropolis as a Castle under Latin Rule (1204–1458): Military and Building Technology,” in
Τεχνογνωσία στη Λατινοκρατούμενη Ελλάδα [Technology in Latin-Occupied Greece] (Athens,
2000), pp. 96–122.