The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

of culture attained by the Southern Slavs before the arrival of the Turks.

“Such buildings as these, now so few, make us sigh over the effects of the great earthquake and over the treasures of art which it must have swallowed up. If Ragusa in her earlier days contained a series of churches to match her civic arcades, she might claim in strictly artistic interest to stand alongside of Rome, Ravenna, Pisa and Lucca. Her churches of the fifteenth century must have been worthy to rank with anything from the fourth century to the twelfth. ...

“In any case the Dalmatian coast may hold its head high among the artistic regions of the world.” 1

The Serbian State before Kossovo had not only grown in size and political influence, but developed internally in a steady and harmonious way. Pachyméres, a Greek writer who visited Serbia about the end of the thirteenth century, praises the simplicity and healthy atmosphere of the Serbian Court life. He was received by Queen Héléne, an Angevin princess, surrounded by her Court ladies—all of them, as well as the Queen, engaged in some useful work. Near her Court Queen Héléne founded and controlled a monastery where were educated the daughters of the Serbian noble houses.

1 Freeman’s Sketches from the Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice, p. 258.

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