Byzantine and Christian Museum

The building of the Byzantine Museum was formerly an 19th-century urban villa called Villa Ilisia. The museum is associated with a beautiful garden featuring antiquarian elements, and the Lyceum archaeological site is right next to the garden.

The museum in April 2022. Photo by OI

 
The museum is one of Greece's national museums, focusing on religious artifacts and cultural heritage from the early Christian, Byzantine, medieval, post-Byzantine, and later periods. The museum's collection includes over 25,000 items from Greece and the Hellenistic area of influence. It is a great destination for visitors interested in Byzantium and its legacy.

Villa Ilisia was one of the newly constructed buildings in the capital. New buildings and infrastructure were needed - in 1834, the city had only about 7,000 residents.

The palace was built by the Duchess of Piacenza, who had an interesting background. Sophie de Marbois was born in Philadelphia, USA, in 1785, the daughter of the French statesman and diplomat Marquis François Barbé de Marbois and his American wife Elizabeth. She married Charles Lebrun, who was Napoleon's adjutant.

In 1830, the duchess became enthusiastic about the Greek War of Independence and developed close relationships with the freedom fighters. From 1831 onwards, she started acquiring large land areas in Athens and permanently settled in the city in 1837. Sophie de Marbois lived in Villa Ilisia until her death in 1854. After that, the building became state-owned and housed, among other things, the Officer Academy.

The architect was Stamatis Kleanthis. Kleanthis (b. 1802) studied at the Berlin Academy of Architecture under the master of neoclassicism, Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The construction of Villa Ilisia began in 1840, a short distance outside the city limits and near the royal palace (now the parliament building). Its Construction started in 1836.

Villa Ilisia was located on the banks of the Ilissos River, which is now covered. The building was part of Kifissias Avenue (now Vasilissis Sophias Avenue). The street quickly became one of the most beautiful boulevards in Athens, a symbol of the capital showcasing europeanisation, lined with impressive buildings owned by prominent members of Athenian society.

The museum describes the architectural complex of the villa as a combination of classical elements, such as horizontal planes and low closed towers, with romantic elements of vaulted arches that add variations of light and shadow, central building with two front parts, and a raised roof.

Museum building seen from the garden side. Photo by OI

In 1926, it was decided to establish the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Villa Ilisia. The facades of the building remained mostly in Kleanthis's style, while the interiors were adapted to meet the new needs.

The museum opened its doors in 1930. From 1987 to 1992, the museum underwent renovations and gained new underground exhibition spaces.

The museum's garden, with its shady resting spots, is definitely worth exploring, offering a great view of the 1830s architecture of the building.

From the garden. Photo by OI

Entrance. Photo by OI

In the museum's lobby, visitors are greeted by Emperor Justinian, Archbishop Maximianos, and their entourage. This is a copy of the mosaic from the San Vitale church in Ravenna, dating back to 547.

What was Byzantium? The museum summarizes the region's history as follows: In 330, the capital of the Roman Empire moved from Rome to Constantinople and ceased to exist in 1453 when the Ottomans conquered the city. The new capital, often described as the New Rome, the "queen of all cities," was actually a city called Byzantium, an ancient colony of the Greek city of Megara, on the shores of the Bosphorus, reconstructed, named, and developed by Emperor Constantine the Great. Constantinople became the most important cultural center of the medieval world. Constantinople was a multicultural and initially multi-religious city. Until the 500s, the Empire spread across three continents around the Mediterranean in Europe, Asia, and Africa. However, in the late 500s, when Germanic tribes occupied Rome and the western part of the Empire, it was limited to the eastern parts of its old territory. From then on, its borders constantly changed. In the 6th century, it was extensive, multicultural, and still multi-religious. In the 1000s and 1100s, it remained multicultural, extending over the regions of the Greeks, the Aegean Sea, and Asia Minor. In the 1200s, in 1204, it ceased to exist after the Fourth Crusade conquered the city, and it was replaced by small states in Bithynia (Nicaea), Epirus, and Pontus (Trebizond). After its reformation in 1261 and mainly during the following two centuries, in the 14th and 15th centuries, it only extended to some Greek lands around Constantinople. Byzantium was by no means unchanging; it was characterized by endless changes in its structures, functions, and nature. Barbarian invasions (2nd–6th centuries), Arab expansion (7th century), plague, climate changes, and other factors left their mark on its citizens, administration, and culture. Map of the Empire of Constantine in 337 and the Empire of Justinian in 565.

In the 4th–6th centuries, Byzantium was essentially Roman in character, and Latin was primarily spoken. As a result of the gradual changes following the establishment of Christianity as the state religion, territorial losses, and iconoclasm, only a few Roman features remained by the 9th century. At that time, the state was limited and multicultural but Christian, with its own original culture; the language used was Greek. The administrative structure and economy changed. The vast provinces of the 4th century disappeared, urban structure collapsed, and fortified settlements took their place. Byzantium became rural and remained predominantly a wealthy rural kingdom until 1204. Only the imperial institution remained unchanged over time. It was shaped over the centuries by incorporating the spirit of Christianity into Hellenistic and Roman political ideas about kingship. The emperor, surrounded by a tightly structured government and ecclesiastical hierarchy, acted as the unique ecumenical leader of the empire, God's representative on earth, caring for all citizens of the world and guiding them to true faith. Map of Byzantium during the Macedonian dynasty in 1056.

The structure of Byzantine society was based on three main foundations: a flexible but powerful administration led by the emperor, Christianity with the patriarch at the head of the church, and the Greek-Roman tradition and the Greek language. All three left their mark on everyday life, as well as the cultural and artistic expressions of the empire. The sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders dealt a crippling blow to the empire but also led to new relationships and channels of communication. The Palaiologan emperors were unable to halt political decline after being restored to the Byzantine throne in Constantinople in 1261. Nevertheless, the Palaiologos contribution in the fields of art and literature was vital for culture and influenced both the East and the West. Map after the Fourth Crusade and the capture and looting of Constantinople on 12.4.1204. Latin territories and the Empire of Trebizond (ruled by the Komnenos family).

In the museum's exhibition, the first rooms are text-heavy, with sometimes excessive text, showcasing material related to the early stages of Christian art and small items from Byzantine daily life. The backgrounds of early Christian art are interestingly highlighted.

Solidus was a coin used in Byzantium. It was still in use in the 11th century. The coin's value was checked by weight.

Christian art emerged late in the classical era of the Roman Empire, and Christian artists and patrons adopted the visual language of the era. Christians borrowed familiar forms from the Greco-Roman world and filled them with new content. The image of a shepherd carrying a lamb on his shoulders, ultimately derived from Greek statues of calf or sheep carriers, was used to convey the idea of Christ as the Good Shepherd, "who laid down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11).

As the exhibition progresses, the dynamics increase, featuring impressive objects from the Byzantine and early Christian periods. Early Christian art from Egypt is also on display.

Particularly striking are the Byzantine icons, elegantly presented. Several displayed icons are double-sided. Age is evident in many icons, and in their worn and patinated state, they can be examined like contemporary artworks, even though their meanings were different when they were created in the early 11th century.

Double-sided icon, featuring the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus (Hodegetria) on the front and two military saints on the back. 13th century.

Double-sided icon, with Saint George in the foreground and saints Marina and Irene (?) in the background. The icon combines elements of Byzantine and Western art. Kastoria, 13th century.

Archangel Michael. From a workshop favored by the Constantinople aristocracy, 14th century.

Parchment manuscript, 11th century.