Mystras

On Tuesday, June 12^th, we drove, by way of modern Sparta, up and up to the nearby medieval Byyzantine city of Mystras.  When Mystras was built, as a citadel above the plain, it used as building material much from the ruins of ancient Sparta.  When, in the 1830s, King Otto of Greece decided to bring back the glories of classical Hellas by building modern cities on the sites of Athens and Sparta, he ordered Mystras abandoned, and, ironically, much of it was used to build the new Sparta.  What is left is mostly in ruins, some partly restored.

During late Byzantine times, Mystras was a very important city, with an imperial palace.  The last Byzantine emperor was crowned there.

We met our guide, George, at the top, and worked our way down to the parking lot at the lowest level of the city.  On the way, we entered several churches.  In one, George, a church cantor, gave us a demonstration of Greek Orthodox liturgical chant, at one point having us give a base structure by chanting “Nee” on one tone, while he sang a melody above it.  George was very informative, though his attempt to differentiate between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism was very inaccurate as to the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Along the way, we visited a restored church that was used by a convent of Orthodox nuns.  We picked up some crafts at their gift shop.

After saying goodbye to George, we went to lunch at a restaurant in downtown Sparta—I forget its name, but the food was very good.

Then we drove on to Nafplion, the first capital of Greece after independence was won from the Turks in the early nineteenth century.  Our bus parked up above the town, where it was met by the family running our hotel (Pension Marianna), who carried our bags through an old Venetian gate to the buildings sprawled down the hillside to the old town.  Our room, small but bright and cheerful, had a view out over the old harbor.

The group went to a wine and ouzo tasting at a wine store in the old town.  Greece has some very good wines.

We had a nice dinner at To Fanaria, in the old town.