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III.—Topographical Notices
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
The following descriptions of the position and present state of some of the most interesting places connected with the history of the Frank Principality are the result of a journey through the Peloponnese, made with the object of investigating the remains of that period. The ordinary routes through the peninsula, which are followed by tourists naturally anxious to visit the classical antiquities, lead to but few of those sites, and therefore it is almost necessary to undertake a special journey in order to explore them. No doubt the mediaeval fortifications of Patras, Corinth, Argos, and Nauplia, which are frequently visited, are among the finest in the country; but these, as we have seen, are but little associated with the history of the Principality, Patras and Corinth having followed for the most part an independent policy of their own, while Argos and Nauplia were attached as a fief to the dukedom of Athens, and remained in the hands of the family of Brienne even after their expulsion by the Catalans from their possessions in northern Greece. The same thing is true of the maritime fortresses of Modon and Coron in the south-west corner of the Peloponnese, for they were almost from the first in the hands of Venice. Hence the parts of the country which deserve especial attention in connection with this period are the north-western, the central, and the southern districts—or, to adopt the ancient names, Elis, Arcadia, and Laconia, together with the eastern portion of Messenia. The course of my own tour was from Corinth by way of Argos, Nikli (Tegea), and Mistra, to Monemvasia on the extreme south-east coast; thence by Passava in Maina and Kalamata through the pass of Makriplagi to Karitena and Akova in north-western Arcadia; and finally through Elis, visiting Khlemoutzi, Klarentza, and Andravida, to Patras. In what I have now to say, however, I prefer to invert this order, and to commence with the western portion, which formed the headquarters of the Principality. Some of the places to be noticed have been visited by Leake, others by Ernst Curtius; Buchon, also, who was indefatigable in every branch of his subject, made a journey in 1840 and 1841 in quest of these Frankish antiquities, an account of which is given in his interesting volume, entitled La Grèce continentale et la Morée. But the majority of the sites are so little known, and the subject has attracted so little attention, that a succinct account of them, which is the result of personal inspection, may not be without value.
- Type
- The Franks in the Peloponnese
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1883
References
page 208 note 1 The sites of the forts of Araklovon and Great Arakhova, which are mentioned in the Chronicle, have not been determined. Buchon visited a place called Arakhova, not far from Dimitzana, but found no castle there (La Grèce, p. 492). In Isambert's Guidebook (L'Orient: Grèce et Turquie d' Europe, p. 330), which is quite the best handbook for travellers in Greece, though it strangely ignores the period of French occupation, mention is made of a Frank castle at Dimitzana. The rocks which surmount that town may easily be mistaken for walls, and in one or two places there are fragments of Cyclopean walls among them; but there certainly is no castle.
page 209 note 1 Buchon, Recherches Historiques, i, Pref. p. xli.
page 209 note 2 Leake, , Travels in the Morea, ii. 171Google Scholar.
page 210 note 1 Curtius, , Peloponnesos, ii. p. 102Google Scholar.
page 210 note 2 Gr. Chron. 889, 890.
page 210 note 3 Hertzberg, , Geschichte Griechenlands, ii. p. 118Google Scholar; Buchon, , La Grèce, 514, 515Google Scholar.
page 210 note 4 Gr. Chron. 6178, 7279.
page 210 note 5 Phranzes, p. 156, edit. Bonn.
page 211 note 1 Buchon, , La Grèce, p. 514Google Scholar.
page 211 note 2 Leake, , Peloponnesiaca, p. 212Google Scholar.
page 211 note 3 Ellissen, , Analekten, ii. 299Google Scholar.
page 211 note 4 Gr. Chron. 1385, 1386.
page 213 note 1 Gr. Chron. 94—97.
page 214 note 1 Ibid. 6079, 6080.
page 214 note 2 Gr. Chron. 1408 foll.
page 214 note 3 Ibid. 6447—6454.
page 216 note 1 Buchon, M. believed that he discovered the name and site of Veligosti, but all its buildings have disappeared. La Grèce, p. 481Google Scholar.
page 217 note 1 La Grèce, p. 493; he spells it Vretembouga.
page 217 note 2 ‘Griphon’ was a common name for the Greeks among the French of this period. Mater is ‘to subdue,’ at chess ‘to check-mate,’ whence the English expression. Hertzberg is in error when he translates Mate-Griphon by ‘schlag die Griechen todt’ (vol. ii. p. 78).
page 218 note 1 This particular point, though it is mentioned by the Chronicle, does not appear reconcilable with the rest of the chronology; but anyhow Margaret was unavoidably absent. See Hertzberg, ii. 173.
page 219 note 1 Finlay, vol. iv. pp. 207, 208, 218, 219; Hertzberg, vol. ii. pp. 172, 173, 251—253.
page 222 note 1 Gr. Chron. 5879—5892.
page 222 note 2 Ibid. 699—720.
page 224 note 1 Leake, , Travels in the Morea, i. 114Google Scholar.
page 226 note 1 The whole story is well worth reading in the original; Livre de la Conqueste, pp. 335—356; see Finlay, iv. 212, 213; Hertzberg, ii. 193, 194.
page 227 note 1 Coronelli, , Mémoires historiques et géographiques du Royaume de la Morée, &c., translated from the Italian, p. 89Google Scholar.
page 228 note 1 Buchon, , La Grèce, p. 430Google Scholar.
page 228 note 2 Gr. Chron. 1662–64. The same thing is stated more explicitly in the Chronicle of Abp. Dorotheus, which was probably first published in 1684: 
Buchon, Chroniques étrangeres, prefatory notice, p. xxx. Cp. also Leake, , Peloponnesiaca, p. 135Google Scholar.
page 228 note 3 Hopf, , Griechische Geschichte, p. 267Google Scholar; Fallmerayer, , Geschichte des Halbinsels Morea, i. pp. 293, 294Google Scholar.
page 229 note 1 de Saint Vincent, Bory, Relation du Voyage, ii. 266Google Scholar.
page 230 note 1 In Phranzes' time it was called after the Saviour himself, Ζωοδότου υόνη.
page 231 note 1 Phranzes, pp. 154, 158, edit. Bonn.
page 231 note 2 Buchon, says in his narrative of his journey, ‘Les tombeaux subsistent encore au milieu des ruines du cloître, et sont connus comme tels dans les traditions du pays’ (La Grèce, p. 432)Google Scholar. And again, speaking of Theodora, he says, ‘Son tombeau, transporté, comme le dit Phranzi, à Mistra dans le monastère de Zoodotou-Pigi (Mère du Sauveur), s'y trouve encore’ (ibid. p. 507). In his Recherches historiques (i. Pref. p. liv.), we find the evidence on which these affirmations rest. Speaking of the church of Pantanassa, he says, ‘Ce n'était pas là que pouvaient être les tombeaux de Théodora Tocco et Cléophas Malatesta. Ils ne pouvaient être que dans le monastère adjoint à l'église, mais en bonne partie ruiné. Je cherchai à me faire jour au milieu des décombres, mais je trouvai les passages obstrués. Je fis venir plusieurs des habitants et m'enquis des tombeaux. Tous furent unanimes pour me dire qu'ils les connaissaient bien et qu'ils étaient placés au milieu des ruines du cloître; mais il me fut impossible d'y parvenir.’ Much would depend on the amount of caution with which these questions were put. No praise can be too great for the ardour with which M. Buchon pursued his investigations, but occasionally his enthusiasm out-stripped his judgment.
page 232 note 1 The evidence of my informant in this matter may not be of much value, but it is not impaired by his having added that the emperor Constantine was the founder of the monastery, and is buried under a rectangular slab which is let into the pavement of the nave. Can this slab by any chance mark the tomb of Theodora? The idea that the other picture was a portrait of the despot Theodore would seem to be confirmed by Bory de Saint-Vincent's statement, that in his time there were traditions of a likeness of him having once existed in the church (Relation du Voyage, ii. 271).
page 232 note 2 Plans of St. Nicholas and Pantanassa are given in Couchaud's Choix d' Églises, Bysantines en Grèce.
page 233 note 1 An accurate copy of these inscriptions is given in the ‘Lives of the Archbishops of Lacedaemonia,’ written in 1755, and published by Buchon in his Recherches historiques, vol. i. p. lxxviii.
page 233 note 2 History of Greece, ii. 321.
page 234 note 1 Castellan, , Lettres sur la Morée, i. 40Google Scholar.
page 235 note 1 Bursian, , Geographie von Griechenland, ii. 138Google Scholar, note.
page 235 note 2 La Grèce, p. 412.
page 235 note 3 Excursion into the Peloponnesus, i. p. 6.
page 236 note 1 La Grèce, p. 414.