Eastern Medieval Architecture. The building traditions of Byzantium and neighboring lands.

As O. reminds us in the introduction, Krautheimer's and Mango's handbooks of Byzantine architecture are now rather out of date, and do not particularly attract readers to deepen their knowledge of Byzantium. However, in 1261, Michael VIII Palaiologos re-conquered Constantinople, and the city enjoyed its last Byzantine flourishing before falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 (Chapter 24). Tenth- and eleventh-century Armenian and Georgian architecture clearly demonstrates that innovation was not restricted to the Byzantine capital (Chapter 19): it is precisely in the Caucasus that certain forms flourished and then spread to other important centres, including Constantinople. Kievan urban buildings, in contrast, recalled the Byzantine capital, and even the building technique was sometimes the same as in Constantinople. [Extracted from the article]