Change in thirteenth-century Byzantine architecture, art, and material culture

The year 1204, when Byzantium was conquered by the participants of the Fourth Crusade, marks a major and violent change on several levels, including politics and the economy, society and religion, as well as art and culture. The once powerful empire experienced both the humiliation of foreign occupation and its political subjugation. After its re-establishment in 1261, Byzantium had become a shrunken state, surrounded by aggressive enemies, while a number of its vital areas, such as Crete and Cyprus, together with the Aegean and Ionian islands, remained under foreign rule.