Houses
The
house was without doubt the centre of private life for the Byzantines. Many
variations of the home existed, depending on the owner’s financial means, the
terrain and, of course, the available space. Thus there were luxurious mansions
and humble dwellings, while urban houses differed from those in the villages.
The
Byzantine home combined features from Ancient Greece, Rome and the East. Available information
derives mainly from descriptions found in texts, manuscript illustrations and
depictions in monumental art, and also from the few remains that have been
excavated.
In
the earliest houses the rooms were organized around an interior courtyard with
a peristyle . The most formal room in the house was the triclinium , which served
as a
dining hall
for
banquets
and as a rule
had
a recess on one of the narrow sides,
where
the table and
the
stivadion were placed. The rooms were large,
and in many cases
opened
onto the surrounding space. They
were often decorated with marble tiles, mosaic floors and frescoes. This
luxurious type of house was obviously intended for the aristocracy of the time;
the middle class lived in more modest versions, with no courtyard or fewer
rooms, beaten earth floors and unpainted plaster walls. That being said, the lower
classes that made up the bulk of the urban population lived in houses
resembling blocks of flats. Written sources tell us that many people in early
Christian Constantinople lived in multi-storey buildings rising from seven
to nine floors high.
The typical Byzantine house began to take shape from
the 6th century on. Especially in the period between the 9th
and 12th century, the triclinium
or triklinari remained the
principal room in the home, often located on the upper floor. It had a saddleback,
flat or domed roof resembling the interior of a church. All the other spaces were arranged around
it: those for men and children (dorms or
cabins); women’s quarters at the back of the house, where the loom was kept;
the dining room; and the lavatory. The sun balcony was either of stone or wood
with trellises, in some cases projecting from the main house or built in a recess
on the upper floor as a semi-open area. Reference is made to covered balconies
with wooden supports (hayats) and various wings around the main building, such
as towers, chapels and baths. The outside walls were meticulously constructed
of alternating brick and stone or decorated with other designs. The floors were
laid with marble tiles, and the walls dressed in marble or adorned with murals,
mosaics, inscriptions and plaques with proverbs, covered by gilt roofs. The peristyle
courtyards and gardens had fountains of various types and sizes with statues. Such
houses were of course owned by emperors and aristocrats, as preserved in
descriptions like that of the palace
of Digenes Akritis.
However, most of the population in Byzantine times
lived in rudely constructed one or two-storey houses of cheap materials. Their form
developed dynamically in the available
space
to meet the inhabitants’ needs,
often using
existing
structures
and
material from ancient
buildings. The majority consisted of a group of rooms arranged around an open
courtyard, where there was usually a well and an oven. At least one of the
wings had a second floor. Descriptions of houses found in Byzantine documents,
as well as those that have come to light in excavations, such as those at Corinth, allow us to
surmise that workshops, mills, warehouses, stables and living quarters often
formed part of a single building complex.
Over the centuries it seems that the triklinari took over all the previously
separate areas and that the interior courtyard was abolished. At Mystras, where
the best preserved examples of late Byzantine houses are to be found, homes
were generally rectangular two-storey affairs, in some cases built parallel to
the slope and in others vertically, so that part of their basement was hewn
into the rock. Some houses were semi-detached, while the mansions had a tower
on one side. The utility rooms (water cistern, warehouse, stable, kitchen,
etc.), were located on the ground floor, whereas the triklinari took up the first floor. The lower level had arches to
support the floor above. Light for the
upper storey came through a row of arched windows. This level was decorated on
the outside with blind arches and conches, and usually had a heliakon (sun balcony) on one side.
Heavy fabrics hanging from the rafters or makeshift board constructions marked
off the various rooms. Alcoves for storing clothes and other objects were made in
the walls, in corners and next to windows, and benches lined the walls.
Opposite the heliakon was the hearth
for heating and cooking. One corner of the house was reserved for the lavatory.
The oldest
house
in
Mystras, the so-called small palace or
archontiko (mansion),
is
a uniquely
well-preserved
noble residence. The Frangopoulos
and
Lascaris mansions are similar though somewhat humbler.
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