Venetian fritoler with portable fryer c. 1900. Sweetness has always been prized. Cave paintings near Valencia dated to around 8000 BC...

East wall, detail Once you’ve been immersed in Byzantium for long enough it’s easy to grow weary of the reel of churches, fortifications...

Hagia Sophia’s conversion into a mosque this year was part of a pattern in which the Turkish state views its legitimacy as threatened by...

“[Abbot Ulsinus] loved the district and people of St Albans and looked after their interests. He brought the people from the surrounding...

According to legend, Venice obtained its relics of St Mark from Alexandria in AD 829. Apparently the pork-barrel-smuggled saint – a...

While most gawp upwards at mosaics, frescoes or columns in Byzantine churches, the gaze is often better fixed on the cupola’s basso...

This is a guest post by @philocrocodile: An intriguing book that does much to bring a too often ignored period to light, John Osborne’s...

According to the apostle Paul, after the first coming of the Messiah there would be a second: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven...

The Roman ingredients of Ottoman architecture (codified during Sinan’s tenure as the royal architect, 1539-88) have historically been...

Santa Maria in Domnica When a biographer described Pope Hadrian’s reign (AD 772-795), he didn’t stress the pontiff’s “Romanitas” in the...

Church of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura Imperial confirmation of papal elections was formally requested until AD 731. At the Emperor’s behest...

View of the Ponte Nomentano by Pierre Nicolas Brisset Gregory the Great was born c. AD 540 into the Anicii family. A great-grandson of...

St. Maria Maggiore In the late fourth and early fifth century, inconspicuous house churches began to morph into large basilicas. Towards...

Arch of Constantine A cavalry battle that started at a defile on the Cassian Road at saxa rubra and continued downhill to the Tiber and...

Virgin & Child, Chora Monastery Istanbul I daydream about a future civilisation condemning the artistic fruits of its Latin precursor by...

I recently did a Zoom chat in which I was asked which Byzantine item I’d rescue in a nuclear holocaust. I started by answering that it...

The Great Palace of Constantinople is usually advertised as the last great hurrah of late antique architecture. Indeed, its style – which...

There’s an oft cited passage of Psellos that describes Zoe’s love of perfumes as well as her devotion to the icon of Christ...

When Mehmed II entered Constantinople in 1453 he was surrounded by ruins and ghosts of the Roman Empire. A sacred landscape, the city was...

Nowhere has the link between dress and identity received more scrutiny than in recent scholarship dealing with veiling trends among women...