Developing Research Repositories to Preserve Cretan History

Fieldwork & Ethnography

Sponsored by Washington University in St Louis, 2019

The Late Byzantine Churches and the Legacy of the Artist Ioannis Pagomenos project conducted an assessment of eight Byzantine churches containing fresco work by Ioannis Pagomenos. Ioannis Pagomenos was a fourteenth-century Byzantine fresco painter who practiced throughout western Crete. These churches capture a transition from the medieval period to the early Renaissance; a time where small churches were arising due to village patronage in rural Byzantine communities.

The conservation reports being created for each church document similar issues across the board. The issues include but are not limited to cracking, sugaring, loss of component, bio growth, rising damp and white veil. The creation and documentation of this material will create a baseline of information about the churches and hopefully help identify physical damage such that these churches can be repaired and maintained. There are many factors threatening the condition and accessibility of these sites and the Salvaging Crete database is one way of promoting their survival.