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Photo: Joyofmuseums · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fortified medieval city in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece
Mystras or Mistras, also known in the Chronicle of the Morea as Myzethras or Myzithras (Μυζηθρᾶς), is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Situated in the Taygetus range, above ancient Sparta, and below a "Frankish" castle, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea in the 14th and 15th centuries, experiencing a period of prosperity and cultural flowering during the Palaeologan Renaissance, attracting artists, architects, and intellectuals such as Gemistos Plethon. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was despot of Mystras before coming to the throne of Constantinople.
