Anastasia Tourta – författare

This book was published to accompany the exhibition 'Icons from the Thracian Coasts of the Black Sea', in the Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki. The 52 Byzantine and Post-Byzantine icons presented and discussed come from Varna, Mesembria (Nesebr), Sozopolis (Sozopol), Vasiliko (Tsarevo) and Agathoupolis (Ahtopol) on the Bulgarian coasts of the Black Sea, as well as from the mountain village of Brashlyan in Standja.These are very ancient cities founded by Ionian colonists in the 7th century BC, excepting Dorian Mesambria (Mesembria), which was founded about one hundred years later. During the Byzantine Age they acquired strategic importance for the protection of Constantinople from attacks by northern peoples. After the founding of the Bulgarian Kingdom in 681, although they were frequently included within its borders, they steadfastly maintained their Byzantine structures and spiritual orientation towards Constantinople.The icons in the publication, charged with the invocations of those who commissioned them - referred to in the dedicatory inscriptions they carry - reveal aspects of the societies from which they come. Concurrently, they point out relations with and influences from the art of Constantinople and, after its capture by the Ottomans, by the schools of painting that emerged in the Greek Orthodox world and indeed in Crete.Greek language text. 172 colour illustrations.

57 colour illustrations.The Museum of Byzantine Culture is one of the most important museums of Thessaloniki, a city with a powerful Byzantine character and beauty. All aspects of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and history are represented through the display of original artefacts, mainly from Thessaloniki, the most important city of the Empire after Constantinople, but also from the wider area of Macedonia.The collection numbers more than 46,000 artefacts, heirlooms and artworks dated between the 2nd and the 20th centuries, with over 3000 on permanent display. Wall-paintings, mosaics, icons, marble architectural elements, detached Early Christian tombs with their wall-paintings, liturgical vessels, implements for personal adornment, but also humble everyday artefacts and tools for professionals are represented not only as artworks, but also as testimonies of the culture that created them and of the human society that used them.This short guide is a concise authoritative picture of the permanent exhibition in the Museum, useful for visitors during their visit to the Museum galleries, and as a memento of their visit long afterwards.

Thessaloniki, the most important city in the Byzantine empire after Constaninople, experienced periods of great economic prosperity and cultural and artistic flowering that created monuments of great importance in the development of Byzantine civilisation. Throughout its existence a bustling metropolis and Mediterranean port, the city is unusual in having a continuous history and cultural evolution that were not interrupted even in the most turbulent times. The monuments surviving from over two thousand years of history of the Byzantine city are representative of Byzantine culture and art over the centuries. Thessaloniki is now regarded as an open-air museum of Byzantine art. Wandering in Byzantine Thessaloniki reveals the Byzantine face of the city to the modern visitor, through the marks stamped on it by 2,300 years of history. The text describes and evaluates all the most recent evidence for the Byzantine monuments of the city. Lavishly illustrated, it offers an elegant account of the history of Byzantine civilization, enticing visitors along the major streets and narrow alleyways of the Upper town and introducing them, through the expertise of the specialist and the love of the admirer, to the enchantment of its unique monuments. English language text. 259 illustrations including 220 full colour.