Mystras or
Mistras , also known as
Myzithras (Μυζηθράς) in the
Chronicle of the Morea, is a fortified town and a former
municipality in
Laconia,
Peloponnese, Greece. Situated on Mt.
Taygetos, near ancient
Sparta, 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. The site remained inhabited throughout the
Ottoman period, when it was mistaken by Western travellers for ancient Sparta. In the 1830s, it was abandoned and the new town of
Sparti was built, approximately eight kilometres to the east.
