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Neopatras
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Photo by Robin Iversen Rönnlund

Neopatras (ancient and modern Hypate/ Ypati) was a Thessalian city in the Spercheios Valley, east of Lamia. The name Hypate was used by Prokopios and Hierokles; Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos knew it as Hypate "which is now called Neai Patrai." The city was perhaps abandoned at the time of the Slavic invasions and until 1204 is known only as an ecclesiastical center - by the 10th century it was already a metropolis with one suffragan, increased to 12 in the 12th century. It played a greater role after 1204, first under Latin control, then within the despotate of Epiros. After the Battle of Pelagonia Neopatras fell to the Byzantines, but by the end of the 13th century it was under the authority of independent Thessalian doukes. Around 1309 John II of Neopatras married Irene, the illegitimate daughter of Andronikos II, and styled himself "the lord of the lands of Athens and Neai Patrai and the doux of Kastoria. The Catalans seized Neopatras in 1319 and retained the city when almost all their possessions had been lost. In 1394 the Ottomans captured Neopatras. The remains of the largely 13th-century castle with keep are south of the modern town, on the site of the ancient acropolis. In the town are remains of a three-aisled basilica and in the Church of St. Nicholas spolia of Byzantine buildings with an inscription of proedros Demetrios Katakalon, the ktetor of the Church of Hagia Sophia.

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Sources

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium edited by Alexander Kazhdan

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Resources

Album (Byzantine Legacy Flickr)

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