We already noted the rare survival of Ottoman mosques in much of Greece. But there is much to be done in researching written and pictorial records of lost examples, where often it is possible to discover Ottoman records referring to their foundation or maintenance (Kiel 2002). One such example I discovered in the background of an icon of Saint John the Baptist from Thebes. Our Boeotia Project Ottoman archivist, Machiel Kiel, also specializes in architecture and has published this lost monument (Kiel 1999), based on this image, attributing it to the 1660s and classing it, with a very similar mosque in Athens, as a major provincial imitation of the great imperial mosques of Istanbul.
The prosperity of the Ottoman Aegean in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the more restricted wealth of parts of the Greek population in the seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries, are manifested not merely in mansions in town and country, but also in the patronage of Orthodox churches and monasteries. It has sometimes been claimed that “Byzantine Art,” relying as it did on Byzantine imperial and elite patronage, would have virtually disappeared with the takeover of the Ottomans. A small proportion of churches were indeed taken over and converted to mosques by the Ottomans, in part to meet the urgent need for places of Islamic worship for the conquerors, as well as (in the case of prestige churches such as Aghia Sophia in Constantinople) to demonstrate the victory of Islam. However in keeping with traditional Islamic tolerance of other ethnic and religious communities, most were not just allowed to continue as places for Christian worship, but could be rebuilt or founded throughout the Ottoman era (cf. Vocotopoulos 1984). In a few cases we know that Ottoman financial support was provided for church repair or construction, whilst religious institutions of all faiths were given tax privileges. It can also be shown that at the major churches and monasteries there can be found impressive works of art from the Ottoman centuries. Thus on Mount Athos (Cormack 2000) the sixteenth century witnessed great buildings and art and many of the most accomplished Greek artists went to work there.
Bouras (2006) argues however that there is a contrast between the Early to Middle, and then Late, Ottoman eras. In the former the tax-privileged rural monasteries erected large well-decorated churches in traditional Middle Byzantine styles (although paintings can be in contemporary fashion, such as the Cretan School), whilst Mainland towns see small monuments inhibited by the dominant Islamic atmosphere. Additionally the countryside sees a proliferation of small public churches donated by local Greek elites, who may be commemorated in the paintings (notably in Epirus and the Pindos uplands), doubtless a reflection of the wide level of rural prosperity. In the Venetian possessions in Greece, Renaissance and later Baroque church architecture entirely displaces Byzantine traditions and reflects a wider Italianization in lifestyle. The standard design forVenetian areas is an aisled basilica with prominent fayades, highly ornamented in carved stone and plaster (Figure 21.3). For the Cyclades, a more hybrid culture creates churches where older Italian Gothic styles mix with Byzantine and Italian Renaissance influences. Nonetheless a unitary trend in both Ottoman - and Venetian-controlled regions is for great attention to be given to grand wooden altar screens with inset icons.
For Late Ottoman times, from 1700 into the nineteenth century, Bouras argues for Ottoman Greece that monasteries continue to be well endowed by wealthy Orthodox elites and retain traditional Byzantine architectural traditions. For Mount Athos notable sponsors are the Greek elite in Istanbul (the Phanariots) and in the Ottoman Danubian provinces. Very different is an explosion of new rural churches which almost completely abandon Byzantine forms and combine influences from popular architecture, Venetian design, Ottoman “Baroque” ornament, and a perhaps conscious revival ofEarly Christian plans. The standard design is a large three-aisled, wood-roofed basilica and is particularly to be found in the proliferation of substantial village churches which replace the often small domed monuments preceding them. The taste for carved and painted wood shows clear influences from the contemporary mansions of local elites (archontika), who usually funded such new communal foci (wealthy merchants, shippers, and landowners). Naturally some of the finest examples are found in the most flourishing economic foci such as eighteenth-century Mount Pelion and the island of Lesbos.
Till very recently, the military architecture of the Ottoman Aegean has been barely researched. It had long been clear that many castles and towers, and in some cases urban walls, of Byzantine-Frankish-Venetian foundation continued in use and were modified during Ottoman times. Ottoman archives are full of details of the maintenance of such installations. Much valuable work could be done on the Ottoman constructional evidence at Greek fortifications, although one has to admit that little has been published to modern recording standards for earlier phases of these monuments, with the standard books and articles on Greek castles remaining remarkably vague on questions of phasing (Andrews 2006 [1953]). Promising developments can now be show-cased: the recent detailed tower - and castle-recording of Frankish fortifications in Greece (Lock 1986, Gregory 1996), study of the Ottoman phase of the castle at Mytilene (Karidis and Kiel 2002, Williams 2009), the Messenian PRAP Project’s textual and architectural analysis of Navarino castle (Zarinebaf et al. 2005), and initiatives such as the Archi-Med Pilot Action (Triposkoufi and Tsitouri 2002).
Finally port facilities have been approached innovatively by the Strymon Valley Survey in Macedonia (Dunn 2009). As has also been shown in Thessaly (Reinders and Prummel 2003) , an Ottoman-era decline in port-towns occurred to the advantage of land routes, but nonetheless coastal warehouse facilities existed of major importance for the imperial grain supply and for the private export of yiftlik commercial products in the later Ottoman era.
World History
