The Cistercian Monastery of Zaraka, Greece

Edited by Sheila Campbell

Book cover: The Cistercian Monastery of Zaraka, Greece

Extent: 280 pages

Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications

Subjects: Medieval Studies, Mediterranean Archaeology, Religious Studies

Series: Monastic Life

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(July 2018)

ISBN: 9781580442442

8.27 x 10.24 inches

Price: $89.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(July 2017)

ISBN: 9781580442459

Price: $72.00

~ENG~An archaeological study of the monastery of Zaraka in Greece, built and developed by Cistercian monks for forty years during the Frankish Crusader period.


During the Frankish Crusader period, Cistercian monks built and developed the monastery of Zaraka in Greece for approximately forty years and were followed first by squatters, then by a seventeenth-century cemetery. The goal of this study has been to identify where the monks came from, how they lived, and why they left so suddenly.

List of Plates and Figures
Acknowledgements by Sheila Campbell
Foreword by Hector Williams
Overview of the Site, Daily Life, and Small Finds by Sheila Campbell
The Political and Religious Context of Frankish Morea by Kathryn Salzer
The Architecture of Zaraka Abbey by Anthony Masinton
Architectural Sculpture by Sheila Campbell
Reconstructing the Abbey Library of Zaraka by Diane Reilly
The Medieval Pottery by Camilla Mackay
Zaraka: The Coins by Julian Baker
The Glass Finds by Susan Young
The Faunal Remains: Daily Life and Environment in Medieval Zaraka by Debbie Ruscillo
Zaraka Surrounded: The Archaeology of Settlements in the Peloponnesisan Countryside by Kostantinos Kourelis
Zaraka: The Human Remains by Sandra Garvie-Lok
Conclusions and Areas for further Research by Sheila Campbell

  • Edited by Sheila Campbell

"The strength of this volume rests in the clear presentation of material that strengthens the reader's understanding of this Cistercian abbey and its community. Careful attention to the later phases of the site's habitation--absent from the book's title--also provides vital information about this region in the late and post-Byzantine periods, re-populating the Stymphalos Valley with those whose stories have, until now, been lost." --Sharon E. J. Gerste, University of California-Los Angeles