The Palaiologan Palace of the Porphyrogennitos and Nymphaion

This chapter focuses on the newly excavated and restored palace at Nymphaion, renowned for its salutary waters and gardens, which had become a secondary imperial capital during exile, and its resemblance to the Palace of the Porphyrogennitos in Constantinople, built in the early Palaiologan period. The architectural form of a rectangular, block-shaped palace with a bath in the lowest story appeared at Nymphaion for the first time and was subsequently brought back to Constantinople and replicated by Michael VIII after 1261. Known as the Tekfur Sarayı, it contains Laskarid imperial iconography on the palace’s columns and walls, illustrating Michael VIII’s reliance on Laskarid artistic sources even after usurping the throne.