Myrto Veikou – ‘Dressing Space’ or Stone Talismans

Working Spatial Politics in the late-medieval Eastern Mediterranean

Dr. Myrto Veikou
University of Patra

Online (Teams) lecture

The paper contributes five case studies to the broad discussion of spolia use by late medieval and early modern multicultural communities. Based on archaeological evidence from three religious and two defensive public buildings in modern Greece and Turkey, it comments upon architectural and spatial practices which reflect social constructions of buildings’ identities and aim to exercise social control. These monuments date to between the 13th and the 19th centuries, when they were situated in contexts of cohabitation among Greeks, Franks, Venetians, Armenians and Turks. The study’s perspective emphasizes the notion of symbols used in architecture.