Developing Deroko's theories_Looking for the incunabola of Byzantine housing

Looking at the Byzantine palaces that have survived through centuries until today, such as the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Palace of Belisarius) in Istanbul, Aleksandar Deroko has underlined the essential distinction between two fundamental genres of Byzantine houses: monumental palaces made of stone and bricks and everyday houses made with a wooden structure. For centuries, the ordinary Byzantine house was considered as a “Turkish type”. Deroko maintained that this classification was erroneous, as the Ottomans actually inherited “the Byzantine house” when they conquered the vast territory of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine house was adopted by the Ottomans and the people under their domination, and over the centuries it spread over a broad geographical area – from Anatolia to North Africa and to the Balkans. Unsurprisingly, it did not reflect a single heritage; instead, it mirrored the various cultures that fell under its rule. Based on Deroko’s theories, one could consider locations such as Mount Athos, Ioannina, Prizren, Ohrid, Elena and even certain villages of Arbëreshë (Italo-Albanian) communities of South Italy as the “incunabula (the first examples, the origins) of Byzantine housing”. Probably, thanks to their morphological characteristics and geographical isolation, some elements of this building type are still visible in these locations, even though they have been integrated into the local housing cultures. These buildings give subtle glimpses of the everyday Byzantine house.