This article attributes the discovery of Byzantine architecture in Greece to the writings of French architects from the 1820s to the 1840s. It aims to demonstrate how publications of Abel Blouet, André Couchaud, and others contributed to challenging the established portrayal of Greece as the exclusive locus of classical antiquity by bringing international attention to the country’s medieval architecture. A French interest in the Greek Byzantine heritage emerged in the early nineteenth century as part of the national and geopolitical interests of France in the eastern Mediterranean. The article analyses how Greek Byzantine architecture was distinguished as a historical category and placed within the broader French discourse on medieval architecture and national patrimony, with some scholars tracing the Gothic style back to Byzantine roots. Moreover, the article demonstrates that in Greece, by contrast, Byzantine architecture was treated with ambivalence, if not outright rejection as local intellectuals strongly adhered to the self-image of Greece as the land of the classics. The unanimous acceptance of Byzantine architecture as an object of national heritage and scholarly research would take place only in late nineteenth-century Greece.

中文翻译：

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法国建筑师和“églises grecques”：1820 年代至 1840 年代希腊拜占庭式建筑的发现

本文将希腊拜占庭式建筑的发现归功于 1820 年代至 1840 年代法国建筑师的著作。它旨在展示 Abel Blouet、André Couchaud 和其他人的出版物如何通过使国际社会关注该国的中世纪建筑来挑战希腊作为古典古代的专属场所的既定描述。法国对希腊拜占庭遗产的兴趣出现在 19 世纪初，是法国在东地中海国家和地缘政治利益的一部分。本文分析了希腊拜占庭式建筑如何被区分为一个历史类别，并被置于更广泛的法国关于中世纪建筑和国家遗产的论述中，一些学者将哥特式风格追溯到拜占庭式的根源。而且，文章表明，相比之下，在希腊，拜占庭式建筑受到了矛盾的对待，如果不是彻底拒绝的话，因为当地知识分子强烈坚持希腊作为经典之地的自我形象。拜占庭式建筑作为国家遗产和学术研究对象的一致接受只会发生在 19 世纪后期的希腊。