The Aegean Crucible: Tracing Vernacular Architecture in Post-Byzantine Centuries (review)

In this profusely illustrated book, written for the general reading public, Constantine Michaelides gives a fully engaged account of the vernacular architecture of the Aegean Islands, an “architecture without architects” (to quote the title of Bernard Rudofsky’s influential 1964 book on this topic), specific to this particular area, and molded by historical, social, and geopolitical factors. There are over 660 illustrations in the book, the majority in color, and most from the author’s own collection dating over the past 40 years, although there are also plans, drawings, and copies of maps and paintings from a wide range of sources, which give a special quality to the book. They are carefully numbered by chapter and chapter section for ease of reference and cross-reference, and some illustrations appear more than once to ensure that the reader can put text and image together almost instantly. The book is intended not only to provide armchair travel but also to accompany readers on exploratory visits to the islands themselves, and while it is perhaps no larger or heavier than a typical guidebook or airport novel, one drawback for easy reading and reference is that it will not stay open when laid flat.

The text and the images are mutually informative; also closely interrelated are several histories. First is the history of the Aegean islands from the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 through the period of Venetian rule and the fortunes at that same time of the Duchy of the Archipelago, to the Ottoman period, then to the War of Independence, and finally to post-Independence Greece. Linked with this is a history of the interest in, and then the serious study of, vernacular architecture and the development of its relationship with folkloric studies. In addition there are the individual histories of particular islands. A main point made is the importance from the thirteenth century onwards of defending island towns against pirate raids by the construction of high building density fortifications using twisting narrow lanes and thick-walled structures with narrow gateways or doorways. Once the threat of piracy diminished, building expanded beyond the walls of the collective fortifications and, with growing prosperity, incorporated neo-classical elements into domestic architecture. Prosperity from tourism now accounts for much renovation and rebuilding, and both national and local ordinances restrict new building to fit in with the established scale and features of particular localities.

The Aegean Crucible comprises a Prologue which sets out the book’s purpose, eight chapters, and a short Epilogue. In the first chapter, the author describes the Mediterranean Sea and its physical features and weather conditions. This scene-setting is pitched at a level which the intelligent general reader (that ideal person for whom all authors hope to write) can appreciate. The subject of Chapter Two is the history of the Aegean from the early thirteenth century, when, after the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders, Marco Sanudo, nephew of the Doge of Venice, made himself Duke of Naxos and rewarded his followers with other islands. The lure was the islands’ strategic positions in the shipping lanes of the Aegean and the Mediterranean, where shipping was prey for pirates, privateers, and corsairs, with their different codes and alliances. It is Michaelides’s contention that the relationship between piracy and fortification is the key “to understanding the vernacular architecture of the islands” (p. 42). An equally important influence on island architecture was the role of the Knights Hospitallers in building, reinforcing, and reconstructing fortifications, particularly on Rhodes, but also on the smaller Dodecanesean islands. The formal architecture of these fortifications influenced, and at later times became incorporated into, the informal building styles of the islands’ towns and villages.

In Chapter Three, Michaelides describes in more detail the Aegean area—its geological composition (with occasional volcanic activity); its seasonal winds and their effects on sailing; the bays, inlets, beaches, and ports of the...