The Byzantine Empire had powerful and well-fortified cities, but the countryside and the outlying islands were ravaged by waves of invaders.
As the Byzantine Empire weakened at the end of the first millennium, Crusader forces were sent from Western Europe to counter the Muslim forces and retake Jerusalem for the Christian faith.
And while Slavs did move into the area around 500, when the Bulgarian Empire conquered the Balkans, the Serbs didn't gain control of Kosovo until the 12 th century, when a dynasty of their leaders known as the Nemanjids invaded it after a period of Byzantine rule.
January: Piana degli Albanesi (near Palermo): colorful Byzantine ritual for Epiphany
For reasons too Byzantine to explain, it's the only unaccredited big zoo in the nation, and it could use a cash infusion.
For Sullivan, the "byzantine" nature of the current tax system benefits the wealthy, who can afford to pay people to decipher it.
Further south, Byzantine columns and Corinthian capitals found in situ were re-installed to give visitors an idea of how the original Cardo looked.
At the summit, within three layers of protective wall, are the remains of a Temple of Aphrodite, an early Christian Basilica, Byzantine cisterns, a Frankish Tower, and Ottoman mosques and fountains — this is Greek history in a nutshell!
(The whole story is much more Byzantine than this.)
Under the canopy carved with Romanesque-Byzantine reliefs is the high altar, richly encased in elaborate, bejeweled, and enamelled plates of gold and silver.
He called for a new international agreement of the kind that replaced the League of Nations with the United Nations, for it was unacceptable that the United Nations should become "merely a building where people go to complain or engage in Byzantine debates over texts that everyone knows the big powers will be the first to treat with contempt."
Unable to afford hefty bribes or airfare to Canada, Russian mothers are looking for other ways to finesse Russia's Byzantine draft laws and keep their sons out of the Chechen conflict.
But beneath Israelis' sympathy for Kosovars lurk more perplexing reactions that illuminate the anxieties of a state where a beleaguered ethnic minority seeks independence, the byzantine nature of Israeli electoral politics, and the enduring weight of the Holocaust in Israel--but not the weight you'd expect.
The heart of Chalki hides a Venetian tower and the whole valley has a number of small Byzantine chapels.
When that cause, too, failed and, after a decade of blood-spilling, the country ended up with a Byzantine coalition of interests presided over by a strongman, the Paz family went into exile in Los Angeles.
Specialists will no doubt be arguing over Saenger's thesis for years to come--don't let your subscription to Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies lapse.
The island was recaptured after a terrible siege of Iráklion by Byzantine commander Nikephóros Phokás.
Known locally as ca’ (short for casa) as well as palazzo, the marble, brick, and white limestone palaces range over 600 years from Venetian-Byzantine to Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical, but most of them are exotically 14th- and 15th-­century Gothic, Venice’s “trademark” in architectural styles.
Immediately next door to the Byzantine Museum is the War Museum, a modern building constructed during the military dictatorship.
On Paros, the marble-clad Byzantine road at Lefkes takes you down the valley to Karampoli.
The whole area was razed during Barbarian attacks in the centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire and was covered with new buildings during Byzantine times, all of which had to be cleared when excavations began.
The church was built on the site of Byzantine and Crusader ruins, paid for by donations from all over the world, and dedicated by the Franciscans in 1924.
Under Byzantine rule the city of Pericles sank into deep provincial obscurity.
On the left is the Byzantine church of Haghia Eirene (Divine Peace), rebuilt together with Haghia Sophia after being burnt down in 532 (closed to the public).
Set on the south coast of the Argolid, it has been a strategic strongpoint for centuries and boasts no less than four castles dating from Byzantine and Venetian times — on far more ancient foundations — called Akronafplia Castle.
Guides will tell you that its 255 enameled panels were encrusted by master Venetian and Byzantine artisans with close to 2,000 precious stones, including pearls, garnets, sapphires, emeralds and rubies.
The Hippodrome was the setting for the ceremony which proclaimed Constantinople as the “New Rome” in a.d. 330, following the division of the Roman Empire, and soon became the civic centre of the Byzantine capital, decorated with imposing monuments and flanked by fine buildings.
Before you reach the village itself you’ll find a beautiful Byzantine chapel on your right.
As Constantinople, jewel of the Byzantine Empire, it was for more than 1,000 years the most important city in Christendom.
It was the great achievement of the Byzantine architects Isidorus and Anthemius, to transfer the weight of the dome to the pillars using arches and “pendentives,” the four triangular sections of masonry that fill the gaps between arches and dome, to create the illusion of an unsupported dome floating in space.
The most spectacular art treasures of the church are its gorgeous Byzantine mosaics, glittering Old Testament scenes high on the walls (don’t forget the binoculars), and a triumphant Mary and Jesus enthroned in the apse over the high altar.
For nearly 1,000 years the Church of Haghia Sophia was the greatest church in Christendom, an architectural wonder built by the Byzantine Empire to impress the world.
Emperor Justinian (527–565) and his wife Theodora reannexed Italy to the Byzantine Empire and codified Roman law as the state’s legal system.
The twin towers, Baroque façade, and Byzantine dome of the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Concepción dominate a fascinating skyline that has remained virtually unchanged for centuries.
The cloisters house a National Museum of Roman, early Christian, and Byzantine Sculpture.
This was taken to Constantinople during the Byzantine era.
Cleverly integrating designs of Arab and Byzantine predecessors, the Norman palaces and churches join the crumbling grandeur of Spanish Baroque façades in momentary triumph over the chaos of the modern port city.
This was the center of population from Byzantine times through to Greek independence, and thus can be called Athens Old Town.
While Byzantine land was being divided, there was no one in control of the seas, so pirates raided towns on many of the islands.
This was the site of the original Byzantium, founded in the seventh century b.c. , and of the civic centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire.
In the nave, the church’s famous Byzantine mosaics show, on the left, Ravenna’s fortified port of Classis, from which a procession of 22 virgins follows the three Magi with gifts for Jesus on his mother’s lap; on the right, from Theodoric’s palace, 26 male martyrs march towards Christ.
Fortified since the seventh century b.c. the summit is criss-crossed with miles of high stone walls dating from this time that were expanded during the Byzantine and Ottoman eras.
When Roman power split in two, the eastern Byzantine Empire inherited the island (though its hold on islands in the south of its dominion were, in reality, nominal).
The street with the tram lines that lead uphill from Sultanahmet (Divan Yolu) was, and still is, the main road leading to the city gates in Byzantine and Ottoman times.
The pretty Byzantine church (c1080) has a stone-and-tile dome exterior but is famed throughout Greece for the fantastic mosaics that decorate the interior, particularly that of Christ Pantocrator in the main dome.
Icons lie at the heart of Byzantine or Orthodox worship in both the Greek and Russian churches, and they form a focus for prayer — the characteristic gold leaf used in their production symbolized the glory of God.
Though little remains from Roman times, the city’s Byzantine legacy boasts Haghia Sophia, the Church of the Divine Wisdom and one of the world’s greatest buildings; the magnificent mosaics of St. Saviour in Chora; and the impressive Theodosian Walls.
Exploiting a natural genius for assimilating the useful elements of the local culture rather than indiscriminately imposing their own, they adopted Arab-style tax collectors and customs officials and Byzantine fleet-admirals for their navy.
In the southeast corner of the site, the 11th century church of Ayios Apostoloi is the only building on the site remaining from the Byzantine era.
But the empire’s troubles increased as invaders made further incursions into Byzantine territory.
