Apart from Constantinople, the political and cultural capital of the Byzantine empire for over a thousand years, there were other wealthy cities and towns as well as monastic communities in the empire which produced exquisite cultural and artistic products.
Using contemporary texts and visual aids, the course will trace the development of Constantinople and certain other Byzantine centres (Thessalonica, Meteora, Mt Athos, Mystras, Holy Land and Mt Sinai, Ravenna, Venice, Sicily) and examine the cultural, artistic and everyday life in those centres from the 4th to the 15th century.