The houses

Urban development in the Upper and Lower City of Monemvasia was determined by the terrain and the area available for building.

Upper City houses typically stand two or three storeys tall, are larger than those in the Lower City and are built parallel to each other. Between them are pathways that may have replaced earlier cobbled roads. These houses belonged to the local aristocracy, to state and military officials, as well as to the city’s rulers. Only one of the buildings in the Upper City seems to have been public; it is an impressive structure measuring at least 25 x 25m - possibly the local commander’s headquarters - on the south-western side of the plateau. It has cisterns and vaulted spaces on two levels, an open plan wooden roofed triclinium on the upper floor and a balcony (solar) facing the sea.

Most of the houses are to the south of the main market road in the Lower City, where building is even denser. The buildings owe their fine condition to the fact that they were well built of sturdy masonry and durable mortar, with extensive use of vaults. Old building shells were consciously and systematically reused down the centuries, which is why the surviving houses in Monemvasia mimic old designs or are adaptations of older structures with plainly visible newer modifications.

Three different types of houses are found in Lower City: one with the façade on the narrow side, another with the façade on the broad side, and the square type which has more or less equal sides. The houses are founded on the bedrock, built of solid masonry and covered with domes, which are typically 3 metres wide.  Cisterns were built in between the foundations to collect rainwater via a network of wells and pipelines starting on the house roof. At foundation level or immediately above there were domed storage areas mainly for olive oil and wine, though in some cases they may have been used for stabling animals. The rest of the house was usually on two levels above the domes. The lower one at street level provided access to the house and contained the kitchen area with the fireplace and cistern hatch; in older buildings there were also toilets similar to those at Mystras. A wooden staircase led to the main living areas on the upper floor. This had a fireplace, a balcony and as many windows as possible. Particularly in later years, rooms were separated by thin walls of rough materials such as planks and plaster (çatmas). If there was any space available, more rooms were added; in some cases the houses extended into archways over the streets. Finally, any courtyards or gardens would have been very small.

1. Α. Κούλογολου-Περβολαράκη, Ε. Ξαναλάτου-Δεργκαλίν, Μονεμβασία. Οχυρά-Κυκλοφορία-Σπίτια, Athens, 1974

2. 1. Μονεμβασία. Αντικείμενα-Περιβάλλον-Ιστορία. Η Αρχαιολογική Συλλογή, Αθήνα, 2001

3. Kalligas H., ‘Monemvasia Seventh-Fifteenth Centuries’ in The Economic History of Byzantium From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C., 2002

4. Καλλιγάς Α. Γ., Καλλιγά Χ. Α., Μονεμβασία. Ξαναγράφοντας σε παλίμψηστα, Αθήνα, Ποταμός, 2006