This is Sparta - An Irony Worth Mentioning...

Today’s day trip to Mystras followed a presentation that my group gave on the area yesterday. In our fifteen-minute overview of the city, I mentioned that after Mystras gained its freedom from the Ottoman Empire (during the Greek War of Independence in 1832), the first ruler of the newly independent Greece abandoned Mystras for the nearby (and newer) city of Sparta; accordingly, all the previous residents of Mystras followed suit.

Looking back on history is oftentimes humorous, and particularly in this circumstance, it is. The views and landscapes that accompany Mystras are priceless real estate, and thus if people would have stuck around and built on the area, they would have held onto some of the most beautiful properties in all of Greece.

However, their exit was exceptionally convenient, as it allowed for the preservation of a village that is simply breathtaking. No picture will ever do this experience justice (the one below is taken of a donkey entering the nun’s quarters in the village’s monastery), yet this area is best explained as an open air museum. It felt lovely to walk along the same steps and look over the same walls that the villagers did a thousand years ago, and more generally, the ability to actually walk on the ruins (instead of glancing at them through a roped-off enclosure) made this trip a completely different experience.

The irony here extends to the explanations we all had when arriving for lunch in Sparta. The bustling, urban landscape of an area that is associated with the movie 300 wasn’t only worth chuckling about, but what was even funnier was how much tougher Mystras seemed in comparison with the relatively gentle Sparta; with many sprained ankles and stomach aches (we were all STARVING), Mystras was one extreme excursion. In comparison, outside of the statue of a Spartan we visited after lunch (shown below), Sparta will be remembered as Mystras‘ less intense neighbor.