Constantinopolitan features in the Middle-Byzantine church architecture of Naxos, Architecture of Byzantium and Kievan Rus from the 9th to the 12th centuries, Transactions of the State Hermitage Museum LII, Saint Petersburg 2010, 21-34. (original) (raw)

constantinoPolitan features in the middle Byzantine architecture of naXos * naxos, situated in the heart of the aegean sea, is the largest of the cyclades islands and holds a particular place in the study of Byzantine architecture, as it preserves over a hundred churches dating from the early christian to the late Byzantine times 1 . the survival of this impressive number of churches is connected with the absence of major human-caused or physical calamities in the history of the island, but also with the special importance of the island during all stages of its mediaeval past. after the mid 7th century, naxos suffers from arab raids, like all coastal regions of the aegean sea, but its mountainous -yet fertile -inland parts offer a safe shelter for the inhabitants 2 . archaeological evidence indicates an uninterrupted activity during the so-called dark ages, even though, according to the early 10th century testimony of cameniates, it appears that the island was paying tribute to the arabs of crete 3 . the re-conquest of crete in 961 and the restoration of peace in the aegean mark the beginning of the middle Byzantine era, a period of over two centuries of significant prosperity 4 . the founding of the diocese of Paronaxia in 1083 5 and of the theme of the "cycladic islands" around the mid 10th century 6 , whose capital was perhaps naxos 7 , are indications of this prosperity and also of the empire's attention to the island. its importance is also the reason for which, after the conquest of constantinople by the crusaders, marco sanudo founds in 1205 the duchy of naxos which controls most of the cyclades islands for over 300 years 8 . the middle Byzantine architecture of naxos has not been thoroughly studied. many buildings remain unpublished or have been published very briefly. there are significant problems of dating as well as issues of a complicated succession of building phases. however, it is possible to make some general remarks. regarding the evolution of architectural types, it seems that the general trends that prevail elsewhere can also be traced on naxos. from the 9th century onwards, the vaulted basilical type gives way to domed types, of which the cross-in-square gradually prevails, especially in its contracted variation which becomes the most preferable type in the 11th and 12th centuries 9 . regarding the architectural forms and decoration 10 , naxos remained largely attached to a local tradition which had developed throughout the so-called * i wish to thank the state hermitage museum for including this paper in the programme of the seminar and personally dr. denis Jolshin who encouraged me and the greek colleagues in taking a trip to st. Petersburg. the subject of this paper is part of a research on the island of naxos, carried out in the framework of the doctoral thesis which i am preparing at the university of Patras, under the supervision of dr. stavros mamaloukos.