Perivleptos Monastery - Mystras Pillow

The medieval, byzantine "castletown" of Mystras, close to Sparta (or "Sparti") town, Lakonia, Peloponnese, Greece. Here you can see the church of the abandoned Perivleptos monastery. In its interior you can see some impressive frescoes. In 1261, the Latins ceded Mystras and other forts in the southeastern Peloponnese as ransom for Villehardouin, who had been captured in Pelagonia, and Michael VIII Palaeologus made the city the seat of the new Despotate of the Morea. It remained the capital of the despotate, ruled by relatives of the Byzantine emperor, although the Venetians still controlled the coast and the islands. Mystras and the rest of Morea became relatively prosperous after 1261, compared to the rest of the empire. Under the despo...