Mystras

Mystras is a ruined Byzantine city built on a spur of the Taygetos Mountains above the Spartan plain, inhabited from the thirteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century and once a significant centre of late Byzantine scholarship. The site contains multiple churches with largely intact fresco programmes representing one of the most extensive surviving bodies of Byzantine painting in Greece. The ruins descend in tiers from the Frankish-era castle at the summit through the upper and lower town, with views across the Eurotas Valley toward Sparta.