Posted by: emel-abora

The eighth event in Sidestreets’ “Conversations on Culture” series in Kyrenia will be a presentation by Dr. Luca Zavagno, entitled “Cities in Transition: Urbanism in Byzantium.” The presentation will be moderated by Dr. Özlem Çaykent, the Chair of the History Department at Eastern Mediterranean University.

The event (presentation and full Sunday luncheon) is rescheduled for Sunday, 7th March at 12:00 noon, at Onar Village in Kyrenia. The cost of admission is 30 TL, and seats should be reserved in advance at Sidestreets, Tel: 229-3070.

“Cities in Transition: Urbanism in Byzantium.”

Dr. Zavagno’s second presentation in the Sidestreets in Kyrenia – Conversations on Culture series introduces his new book, “Cities in Transition,” a major contribution to our current understanding of the urban experience between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Zavagno expands his exploration of urbanism in the Byzantine Empire beyond Constantinople, the “eye of the universe,” and looks at the real problems facing cities in a period of transformation and modification, as their functions, ideologies and topographies changed. The presentation focuses on the peculiarities of urban centres such as the Pontus (Amastris), Italy (Naples), western Anatolia (Ephesos), and insular and mainland Greece (Gortyn and Athens); and outlines how exciting new archeological discoveries have helped to transform our understanding of this period and provide a new perspective on urban experience in our own time.

Luca Zavagno was born in Venice, where he received his B.A. degree in History from the University Ca’Foscari; he completed his Ph.D. studies at the University of Birmingham on the society, culture, economics and politics of Byzantine cities. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Eastern Mediterranean University, where he is doing research on Cyprus in the Byzantine period, in its role as a major strategic and commercial hub along the eastern Mediterranean sea routes, its administrative and exchange links with Constantinople, and its relation to Syria and Palestine, where Byzantine power succumbed to the expansion of Islam.

Dr. Zavagno is the author of "Cities in Transition: Urbanism in Byzantium Between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages" (British Archaeological Reports-International Series, 2009), a book which explores the impact of important historical events on urban settlements in the Pontus (Amastris), Italy (Naples), western Anatolia (Ephesus), and Greece (Gortyn and Athens) during this period. His work dramatically reveals how cities did not simply shrink or become self-enclosed and isolated, but were transformed administratively, defensively, and economically as the Byzantine empire changed.

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