MISTRAS - 2006

Mistras. G. Marinou reports on new evidence for the architecture and form of the Laskaris house in the lower town, revealed in the course of cleaning and restoration work from 2002 onwards.
Three building phases can be identified, and are described in detail. The original, possibly 13thCt AD, building is a rectangular structure perpendicular to the contours of the hill, with a small vaulted triclinium on the 1st floor (only traces of its 2nd storey are preserved), a ground floor space and a stoa to the N. The building was extended in the first half of the 14th Ct (possibly by Alexios Laskaris Metochitis, governor of the Peloponnese), with the addition of a large triclinium supported on a 2-storeyed vaulted extension to the E and N of the original house. This extension occupied the site of earlier buildings. Removal of Ot additions (a cross-wall in the triclinium, masonry sealing its N windows etc.) revealed the triclinium floor, the original form of the windows and of the seat by their sills, and the form of the tympanum of the Byz arch on the E façade beneath the triclinium (2 openings with semicircular arches, separated by a pillar). The N portico is also seen to be a 2-storeyed arcade on the E façade. The 3rd phase saw the addition of a special room with pointed door and window openings at the S of the triclinium. On the E façade, the 2 large arches at the level beneath it were replaced by a wall with smaller pointed windows. The large arch on the ground floor beneath was also replaced. Parapets with corbels were installed on the balconies. A date of the 2nd half of the 14th Ct is proposed for this final phase, and the author suggests that the changes reflect the new taste for private rooms and westernizing features at the court of the Despot Manuel Kantakouzenos and his wife Isabelle de Lusignan.