This project was carried out in support of joint activities aimed at strengthening cultural exchanges and highlighting the cultural identity of Crete and Cyprus through new technology, via Community Framework Interreg IIIA for Greece and Cyprus. Its object is to investigate and shed light on the cultural influences which the Renaissance had on the Eastern Mediterranean via areas under Frankish dominion, among which both Crete and Cyprus played a leading role.

The two large islands in the Eastern Mediterranean charted a similar course after the decline of the Roman Empire. As parts of its Eastern half, which later became the Byzantine Empire, they came under repeated attack and were eventually conquered by the ascendant Arabs (681-728/9). In the mid-Byzantine period they were to return to the empire (965 – 961), which exerted a powerful, decisive influence until the islands fell prey to the eastward-bound Crusaders. They then became autonomous colonies or “kingdoms” of the mighty European powers of the time, these being France (which took Cyprus in 1191) and Venice (to which Crete fell in 1204). .

Over the four centuries up until the Ottoman conquest, the societies established on the two islands were the last bastions of their European counterparts which shared in the birth and zenith of the Renaissance. As autonomous administrative entities (kingdoms), they delimited the geographical spread of the concept of Europe in the Near East. Despite remaining peripheral vis-à-vis the main centres of events, they were not uninvolved in the transformations and transition from Medieval Europe to the blossoming of the Renaissance. Growth and prosperity fluctuated, ever on the basis of the mixed composition prevailing in the two societies: the upper class and the administration on the one hand, and the local population with its strong religious and local consciousness on the other. Over the four centuries of cohabitation and co-existence, mutual exchange, influence and intercourse took place between what had at first been highly segregated groups. Relative peace and economic growth after the 15^th century permitted the movement of commodities and ideas, material forms of culture and intellectual creations.

Convergence towards the spirit of the Renaissance and acceptance of it spread gradually through the various domains of art. Literature yielded the well-known works of the Cretan theatre and poetry, as well as major works of Cypriot literature. In the field of architecture, techniques, paradigms and motifs from the ruling and upper classes were adopted and gradually incorporated into the more popular idiom. Fortification works changed the face of the towns. Venetian words and terms gained currency in everyday life, alongside foodstuffs, fabrics and household goods derived from the mother city.

The areas of Sitia and Paphos, which had made their mark in previous historical periods, were centres of secondary importance in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, they do boast impressive monuments which arouse interest in the conditions which led to their creation.

A whole host of information on contemporary society, the locals and their activities is to be obtained by studying archival material kept by notaries in the 16^th and 17^th century. This derives from the villages of Sitia, and indeed from those villages in the present-day Municipality of Lefki.

The pages of the ledgers conjure to life the families that lived in the then flourishing villages: not only the feudal lords with their clerks and servants, the property assessors and clerics, but also their activities: sales and purchases, grants of dowry, conflicts and reconciliations. Families bearing names such as De Mezzo, Cornaro, Dandolo, Da Molin, Salomon, Vlacho, Abramo, Dono, Paolin, Stratigo, Zorzi, Zen, Barbarigo, and others, were mainly to be found at their local seats of power, as well as at the harbour of Sitia and in Chandax (Heraklion), constantly engaged in activities we only know a fraction of, when we consider that the surviving ledgers only represent a small part of all attested notaries and contracts.

Study of the monuments that have survived, even if seriously damaged or transformed, allowed us to make comparisons and associations, and to a certain extent also to identify paradigms and the local application of architecture. A parallel glance the Paphos area in Cyprus reveals the dissemination and small-scale use of new aesthetic conceptions, in a region bearing the marked presence of both Byzantium and Gothic elements deriving from the south of France.

Everyday life was re-composed via data in the archive sources (deeds of contract), as well as via comparison of implements and equipment from the period, which remained in use almost unchanged up until the mid-20^th century. Though available sources are laconic in nature, mores and customs in the late 16^th and early 17^th century are reasonably well outlined in the texts.

Through this website, we invite you to view and learn about all aspects of the above outline in more detail. Visitors can view presentations on specific topics, such as: “Feudal lords and peasants in Sitia of the late venetian period (1575-1615)”; “Renaissance Influences on Monuments in the Municipality of Lefki”; “Rennaissance influences on Monuments in the Municipality of Paphos”; “Intellecual production in Cyprus on 15th and 16th centuries”; “Aspects of economical life in Sitia of the venetian period (late 15th-beginnings of 17th centuries”; “Everyday Life on Venetian Crete and on Cyprus under on 16th -17th centuries”.

Visitors can search for detailed information regarding the information in archival sources on people, place names, villages and families.

It is also possible to search for detailed descriptions of monuments , images and plans.

Bilingual Posters exhibit 18 thematical issues concerning aspects of the research.

We would like to exress our debits to Vikelaia Municipal Library of Heraklion, to the 13th Ephorate for Byzantine Antiquities of the Greek Ministry of Culture and to the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, for the material  and the permissions granted, as well as for the cooperation and the support they provided.