Francia
The Byzantium Empire (A.D. 330 to 1453), a captivating mixture of creative audacity and adherence to traditions, was for several centuries Christianity’s first power centre. After taking over as much of Asia as it did Europe, the Empire forged a strong link between these two continents : spiritually and artistically, Orthodox Christianity is its direct heir. Saint Sophia Cathedral—which was the largest church of Christendom until the collapse of the Empire—is a museum today and still the most visited monument in Istanbul, where mosaic art reached its zenith. This Empire played a decisive role in the transmission of literary, philosophical and scientific texts of Greek Antiquity, which it never stopped studying and transcribing. Without it, we would not have known the original versions of the works of Plato, Euripides, or Euclid.Michel Kaplan, is a professor at Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), and heads the Centre de recherches d’Histoire et Civilisation byzantines et du Proche-Orient médiéval.
