Isova is the site of a ruined Frankish monastery near the modern village of Trypiti (formerly Bitzibardi) in the western Peloponnese, Greece. The church of Notre Dame at Isova, built in the first half of the 13th century, is among the best surviving examples of Gothic architecture in the Peloponnese, along with the church of Saint Sophia at Andravida and the monastery of Zaraka at Stymphalia.
The Frankish monastery at Isova was founded some time after 1205, when the French Principality of Achaea was created in southern Greece in the wake of the Fourth Crusade, and before 1263, when the abbey was destroyed by fire (see below). Although the religious order responsible for the monastery is not recorded, it is now generally believed to have been a Cistercian foundation. [1] The Cistercians were active in the Fourth Crusade and established at least a dozen abbeys in Byzantine territories captured by the Crusaders, [2] and there is archival evidence that specifically suggests Cistercian involvement in two monastic foundations in the Peloponnese itself during the early 13th century. [3] One of these two Cistercian abbeys in the Peloponnese can be identified with certainty as the monastery of Zaraka at Stymphalia, in the archdiocese of Corinth. [4] For the other, the monastery at Isova, in the archdiocese of Patras, appears to be the only known candidate.
The abbey church of Notre Dame consisted of single large rectangular hall, ca. 38.5 m long by 12.5 m wide (internal measurements), with a chancel at the eastern end projecting an additional ca. 8 m and ending in an octagonal apse supported by six external buttresses. [5] The west and north walls are nearly intact; the south wall is partially destroyed and the east end is barely preserved above the foundations. There is no evidence of internal supports dividing the interior into nave and aisles, and no narthex or transept. The triangular gable of the west wall preserves the profile of the steeply pitched wooden roof, which apparently covered the entire width of the main hall in a single span, presumably with trusses, which were supported on simple corbels ca. 4 m apart in the side walls. A reused fragment of rib vaulting built into the wall of the later church of Saint Nicolas suggests that the chancel was roofed with a stone vault. [6] The well-preserved windows in the north wall are single lancets (1.80 m high) topped by ogival arches. The west wall had two slightly larger windows (2.40 m high) below and a single much larger one (3.60 m high) in the gable. A small fragment of stone tracery found nearby may indicate that the windows in the chancel were larger and more elaborate, with two lights surmounted by a cinquefoil. [7] Traces of abutting walls and supports for floor and roof beams in the exterior north wall of the church show that the cloister and other monastery buildings were located on that side, although no remains of these are visible today. [8] In plan, architectural style, and construction technique the church belongs entirely to the western European Gothic tradition, without any sign of Byzantine influence, and it has been suggested that it was not merely designed but actually built by western craftsmen, if not by the monks themselves. [9]
According to the 14th-century Chronicle of the Morea , the church was destroyed by fire in 1263, shortly before the battle of Prinitza, by a band of Turkish mercenaries fighting alongside Greek forces in an attempt to restore Byzantine control over the Peloponnese. [10]
The church of Notre Dame was not restored after the conflagration of 1263, but some time later a second, much smaller church, dedicated to Saint Nicolas (Ayios Nikolaos), was constructed ca. 20 m. south of the ruins of its predecessor. [11] The church is nearly square in plan, ca. 10 m on a side. The interior was divided into a nave and two aisles by arcades supported on two pairs of piers or columns, the bases of which survive: one pair was located in the center of the church, the other at the eastern end on either side of the central apse. Three apses are visible in the well-preserved eastern wall: a larger central apse at the end of the nave (which is the only one that projects on the exterior of the building), flanked by two shallower apses at the ends of the side aisles. The windows in the two side apses are single lights topped by ogival arches; the window in the central apse, no longer preserved, was larger, with two lights. There was no narthex; three doors in the western wall provided entrance directly into the church. The roof was of wood, presumably with a clerestory over the central nave. [12] Unlike the purely Gothic Notre Dame, the church of Saint Nicolas displays a mixture of Byzantine and Gothic features: the construction techniques, square plan, and triple apses suggest Byzantine architectural influence, but the tripartite basilical arrangement of the interior is a western feature and many of the architectural details, such as the pointed arches of the windows and the bases of the piers or columns separating the nave and aisles, are Gothic. [13] Since there is no trace of an iconostasis dividing the nave from the sanctuary, it seems clear that this church too was constructed for Catholic rather than Orthodox worship. [14] Its date is uncertain: the fact it incorporates at least one fragment from the ruined church of Notre Dame (see above) shows that it must be later than 1263, but dates from the late 13th to the 15th century have been suggested. [15]
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later date being the most commonly held. In the 12th century it developed into the Gothic style, marked by pointed arches. Examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. The Romanesque style in England and Sicily is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.
Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. It originated in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of northern France. The style at the time was sometimes known as opus Francigenum ; the term Gothic was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious to revive the architecture of classical antiquity.
The architecture of cathedrals and great churches is characterised by the buildings' large scale and follows one of several branching traditions of form, function and style that derive ultimately from the Early Christian architectural traditions established in Late Antiquity during the Christianisation of the Roman Empire.
The flying buttress is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to push a wall outwards. These forces arise from vaulted ceilings of stone and from wind-loading of roofs.
A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic architecture, Romanesque architecture, and especially Gothic architecture. Thin stone panels fill the space between the ribs. This greatly reduced the weight and thus the outward thrust of the vault. The ribs transmit the load downward and outward to specific points, usually rows of columns or piers. This feature allowed architects of Gothic cathedrals to make higher and thinner walls and much larger windows.
Zaraka Monastery is a ruined Frankish abbey near Stymfalia, in the Peloponnese, in Greece. It was built about a kilometre from the shores of Lake Stymphalia, the site of the ancient city of Stymphalus, during the "Frankokratia", i.e. the occupation of parts of the Byzantine Empire by Franks and Venetians, following the events of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and the establishment of the Latin Empire of Constantinople and Greece.
Selimiye Mosque, historically known as Cathedral of Saint Sophia or Ayasofya Mosque, is a former Christian cathedral converted into a mosque, located in North Nicosia. It has historically been the main mosque of the city. The Selimiye Mosque is housed in the largest and oldest surviving Gothic church in Cyprus possibly constructed on the site of an earlier Byzantine church.
French architecture consists of numerous architectural styles that either originated in France or elsewhere and were developed within the territories of France.
Gothic architecture appeared in the prosperous independent city-states of Italy in the 12th century, at the same time as it appeared in Northern Europe. In fact, unlike in other regions of Europe, it did not replace Romanesque architecture, and Italian architects were not very influenced by it. However, each city developed its own particular variations of the style. Italian architects preferred to keep the traditional construction methods established in the previous centuries; architectural solutions and technical innovations of French Gothic were seldom used. Soaring height was less important than in Northern Europe. Brick rather than stone was the most common building material, and marble was widely used for decoration. In the 15th century, when the Gothic style dominated both Northern Europe and the Italian Peninsula, Northern Italy became the birthplace of Renaissance architecture.
French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, and Amiens Cathedral. Its main characteristics were the search for verticality, or height, and the innovative use of the rib vault and flying buttresses and other architectural innovations to distribute the weight of the stone structures to supports on the outside, allowing unprecedented height and volume. The new techniques also permitted the addition of larger windows, including enormous stained glass windows, which filled the cathedrals with light. The French style was widely copied in other parts of northern Europe, particularly Germany and England. It was gradually supplanted as the dominant French style in the mid-16th century by French Renaissance architecture.
Glarentza, also known as or Clarenia, Clarence, or Chiarenza, was a medieval town located near the site of modern Kyllini in Elis, at the westernmost point of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Founded in the mid-13th century by William II of Villehardouin, the town served as the main port and mint of the Frankish Principality of Achaea, being located next to the Principality's capital, Andravida. Commerce with Italy brought great prosperity, but the town began to decline in the early 15th century as the Principality itself declined. In 1428, Glarentza was ceded to the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea, and served as its co-capital, being the residence of one of the Palaiologos despots, until the Ottoman conquest in 1460. Under Ottoman rule, Glarentza declined rapidly as the commercial links with Italy were broken, and by the 16th century was abandoned and falling into ruin. Little remains of the town today: traces of the city wall, of a church and a few other buildings, as well as the silted-up harbour.
The Abbey of Santa Maria di Rovegnano is a Cistercian monastic complex in the comune of Milan, Lombardy, northern Italy. The borgo that has developed round the abbey was once an independent commune called Chiaravalle Milanese, now included in Milan and referred to as the Chiaravalle district.
Early Gothic is the style of architecture that appeared in northern France, Normandy and then England between about 1130 and the mid-13th century. It combined and developed several key elements from earlier styles, particularly from Romanesque architecture, including the rib vault, flying buttress, and the pointed arch, and used them in innovative ways to create structures, particularly Gothic cathedrals and churches, of exceptional height and grandeur, filled with light from stained glass windows. Notable examples of early Gothic architecture in France include the ambulatory and facade of Saint-Denis Basilica; Sens Cathedral (1140); Laon Cathedral; Senlis Cathedral; (1160) and most famously Notre-Dame de Paris.
The Piona Priory or Piona Abbey, is a religious complex on the Lecco bank of Lake Como in the territory of the municipality of Colico, northern Italy.
The Barony of Patras was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the northwestern coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Patras. It was among the twelve original baronies of the Principality of Achaea, but passed into the hands of the Latin Archbishop of Patras at about the middle of the 13th century. From 1337 on, Patras was an ecclesiastical domain de facto independent of the Principality, although the archbishops still recognized its suzerainty for their secular fiefs. The archbishops maintained close relations with the Republic of Venice, which governed the barony in 1408–1413 and 1418. The barony survived until the Byzantine reconquest in 1429–30.
The Barony of Passavant or Passava was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the mountains between the Mani peninsula and the plain of Laconia, in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the fortress of Passavant or Passava. It was among the twelve original baronies of the Principality of Achaea, but was conquered by the Byzantines in the early 1260s.
Romanesque architecture appeared in France at the end of the 10th century, with the development of feudal society and the rise and spread of monastic orders, particularly the Benedictines, which built many important abbeys and monasteries in the style. It continued to dominate religious architecture until the appearance of French Gothic architecture in the Île-de-France between about 1140 and 1150.
Gothic cathedrals and churches are religious buildings created in Europe between the mid-12th century and the beginning of the 16th century. The cathedrals are notable particularly for their great height and their extensive use of stained glass to fill the interiors with light. They were the tallest and largest buildings of their time and the most prominent examples of Gothic architecture. The appearance of the Gothic cathedral was not only a revolution in architecture; it also introduced new forms in decoration, sculpture, and art.
Beata Maria Kitsikis Panagopoulos is an emeritus full professor of Art and Humanities, born in Athens, Greece, June 27, 1925, residing in the United States since 1947. She was a professor at San Jose State University and retired in 1988.