THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK

OF THE BYZANTINE CITY

The Byzantine world contained many important cities throughout its empire. Although it
was not ‘urban’ in the sense of the word today, its cities played a far more fundamental
role than those of its European neighbors. This book, through a collection of twenty-four
chapters, discusses aspects of, and different approaches to, Byzantine urbanism from the
early to late Byzantine periods. It provides both a chronological and thematic perspective to
the study of Byzantine cities, bringing together literary, documentary, and archival sources
with archaeological results, material culture, art, and architecture, resulting in a rich
synthesis of the variety of regional and sub-regional transformations of Byzantine urban
landscapes.
Organised into four sections, this book covers: Theory and Historiography, Geography
and Economy, Architecture and the Built Environment, and Daily Life and Material
Culture. It includes more specialised accounts that address the centripetal role of
Constantinople and its broader influence across the empire. Such new perspectives help
to challenge the historiographical balance between ‘margins and metropolis,’ and also to
include geographical areas often regarded as peripheral, like the coastal urban centers of
the Byzantine Mediterranean as well as cities on islands, such as Crete, Cyprus, and Sicily
which have more recently yielded well-excavated and stratigraphically sound urban sites.
The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine City provides both an overview and detailed
study of the Byzantine city to specialist scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike and,
therefore, will appeal to all those interested in Byzantine urbanism and society, as well as
those studying medieval society in general.

Nikolas Bakirtzis is an Associate Professor at The Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus.

His research focuses on Byzantine monasticism, medieval cities and fortifications, and the
island landscapes of the Byzantine, medieval, and early modern Mediterranean. As the Di-
rector of the Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Labs, he leads research on the materiality
of medieval and early modern art enhanced through the use of advanced digital and analyti-
cal methods. His work has received support from the European Commission, the Cyprus
Research and Innovation Foundation, the Princeton Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, the
A.G. Leventis Foundation, and the Getty Research Institute.
Luca Zavagno is an Associate Professor of Byzantine Studies at Bilkent University, Turkey.
He is the author of many articles and books on the early medieval and Byzantine Mediter-
ranean. His research focuses on Byzantine urbanism and medieval Mediterranean insular-
ity. He has been awarded the Dumbarton Oaks Summer Fellowship twice (in 2011 and
2016) as well as the prestigious Stanley Seeger Fellowship of the Hellenic Studies Center at
Princeton University (2012), the Newton Mobility Grant (2018), and he has been twice a
fellowship at Center for Advanced Studies ‘Migration and Mobility in Late Antiquity and
the Early Middle Ages’ at the University of Tübingen, Germany (2022 and 2023).
 THE ROUTLEDGE
HANDBOOK OF THE
BYZANTINE CITY
From Justinian to Mehmet II
(ca. 500 – ca. 1500)

Edited by Nikolas Bakirtzis and Luca Zavagno

Designed cover image: Jerusalem on the Madaba Map. Madaba, Jordan.
Eyal Bartov/Alamy Stock Photo 2BC6KRR.
First published 2024
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2024 selection and editorial matter, Nikolas Bakirtzis and Luca
Zavagno; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Nikolas Bakirtzis and Luca Zavagno to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced,
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bakirtzis, Nikolas, editor, author. | Zavagno, Luca, editor, author.
Title: The Routledge handbook of the Byzantine city : from Justinian
to Mehmet II (ca. 500 - ca.1500) / edited by Nikolas Bakirtzis and
Luca Zavagno.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2024. | Series: Routledge history
handbooks | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2023032081 (print) | LCCN 2023032082 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367196790 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032603568 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780429203923 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: City and town life--Byzantine Empire--History. |
Urbanization--Byzantine Empire--History. | Cities and towns--Byzantine
Empire--History. | Cities and towns, Medieval--Byzantine Empire. | City
planning--Byzantine Empire--History. | Byzantine Empire--Social life and
customs. | Byzantine Empire--Social conditions.
Classification: LCC DF531 .R678 2024 (print) | LCC DF531 (ebook) |
DDC 949.5/02--dc23/eng/20230826
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023032081
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023032082

ISBN: 978-0-367-19679-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-60356-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-20392-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429203923

Typeset in Sabon
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
 CONTENTS

List of Illustrations x
List of Contributors xvii

Introducing the Byzantine City, its Histories, Ideas and Realities 1

Nikolas Bakirtzis and Luca Zavagno

PART I
Theory and Historiography 15

1 The Byzantine City and its Historiography 17

Luca Zavagno

2 Theorizing Byzantine Urbanity: The City Constituting Memory,

Memory Constituting the City 37
Myrto Veikou

3 The Byzantine City in the Literary Sources 56

Helen Saradi

4 Methodologies for Byzantine Urban Studies 73

Michael J. Decker

5 Spatial Organization in Late Byzantine Cities (13th–14th Centuries) 91

Tonia Kiousopoulou

vii
 Contents

PART II
Geographies of the Byzantine City 105

6 Cities on the Black Sea Coast and the Circumpontic Exchange

Network (c. 500–700) 107
Andrei Gandila

7 The Byzantine ‘City’ in Asia Minor 139

Ufuk Serin

8 Insular Urbanism in Byzantium 172

Luca Zavagno

9 The City in the Byzantine ‘Italies’ 192

Enrico Cirelli

10 Urbanism in Syria and Palestine Between the 7th and 9th Centuries 228
Ian Randall

PART III
Architecture and the Built Environment 245

11 Domes in the Urban Skyline: The Case of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus
and its Transformations through Time 247
Nikolaos Karydis

12 Fortifications and the Making of the Byzantine City 272

Nikolas Bakirtzis

13 Monumentality and the Byzantine City 290

Maria Cristina Carile

14 Maintained, Stored and Protected: Water and the Byzantine City 311
Elisabetta Giorgi

15 Islamic City, Ottoman City: Byzantine Prousa to Ottoman Bursa 334

Suna Çağaptay

16 Two Views of Ports and Maritime Communities in the Byzantine

Mediterranean: Constantinople and Amalfi 352
Michael Jones and Matthew Harpster

17 Alexandria after Antiquity: A City in Transition 368

Athanasios Koutoupas

viii
 Contents

PART IV
Daily Life, Visual and Material Culture 385

18 The Arts and the Byzantine City 387

Ioli Kalavrezou

19 On Early Byzantine Images of Poleis: Meanings and Messages 405

Jenny P. Albani

20 The Consumptive Capital: Commercial Activities and Ceramic

Finds at Constantinople (ca. 500–1000) 427
Joanita Vroom

21 Pera Ianuensium Pulcherrima Civitas Est: Creating a Genoese

Identity on the Golden Horn (1261–1453) 451
Mabi Angar

Index 478

ix