Late Byzantine Period

With the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders in 1204, a period of changes and turmoil begun, which would last until the mid-15th century. Latin principalities were established in most of the empire’s European lands, while to the north the Bulgarians and the Serbs gained power and territory. In addition, members of the Byzantine aristocracy set up their own independent and often mutually hostile principalities—in Nicaea in Asia Minor, Trapezond on the Black Sea, and Arta in Epirus.

These developments brought western and eastern Christendom into closer contact. As they shared the same spaces, they started interacting and, despite the tensions, phenomena of cultural osmosis took place. Mutual influences are evident in various fields of artistic production: in frescoes, sculpture, in public and domestic architecture, in churches and monasteries.

In 1261, the Empire of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire (Palaiologan dynasty). The reborn state had to deal with an unfavourable or even hostile environment, in which relations between old and new powers were fluid. The Ottoman Turks posed a new great threat, as they expanded rapidly first in Asia Minor and later in the Balkans.

The state started losing its territories one by one, until Constantinople itself fell on 29 May 1453, marking the end of the mighty Byzantine Empire. Strangely, it was in this late period that Byzantium reached its intellectual and artistic peak. Its scholars paved the way for the Italian humanists (with whom they were in contact), while the arts produced works of unparalleled beauty, which are still admired today.