The Latin States (1099-1291)

Following the conquests made in Syria and Palestine by the First crusade, four Latin states were founded: In 1098 Baldwin de Boulogne created the county of Edesse while Bohemond and the Italo-Normans founded the principality of Antioch; In 1099 the kingdom of Jerusalem was established by Godefroy de Bouillon and continued by Baldwin 1^st; Between 1099 and 1109 the county of Tripoli was created by the dynasty of Raymond de Saint-Gilles from Toulouse. The Latin population originating from Europe, which probably never exceeded a few tens of thousands, was made up of the crusaders themselves or migrants following the first crusade. They co-existed alongside Greeks, Arabs, Armenians, Copts, Maronites and Christian Syrians. They lived mainly in the coastal ports or in towns in the interior regions, populated by Oriental Christians rather than formerly Muslim areas. As Foucher de Chartres wrote “we who were once of western origin, we have become Oriental. He, who was once a Frank or Roman, is now implanted in the soil of Galilee or of Palestine. He, who was once from Reims or Chartres, is now a citizen of Tyre or Antioch”. The practical details concerning the assimilation of the local culture are thus of fundamental importance to the study of the patrimony of the Latin states of Syria and Palestine. Which aspects of the precedent culture’s craftsmanship did the Franks preserve, whether it had been the Greeks or the Arabs or the Christian Syrians? What aspects did they introduce themselves? How did the artistic traditions of the local Christians combine with those of the Europeans or the Byzantines to produce a distinct tradition proper to the Frankish states? Can we properly speak of crusader art? These are the questions that scholars have been asking over the last decades…

The vicissitudes that the Latin states experienced during their two centuries of existence (1099 -1291) had a profound influence on their artistic evolution. The first half of the 12^th century was one of military expansion, when the states reached their maximum extent, with the exception of Edesse, which was conquered by Zangi in 1144. During this period the Latins restored the Christian Holy sites and built many churches and monasteries: Crusader art can thus be considered as one of pilgrimage, destined to glorify the places where Christ and the Apostles lived. The borders of the states began to recede in the 1160s and this process accelerated with Saladin’s victories, ending with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1187. The loss of the holy sites meant that many artefacts disappeared with them. The success of the third crusade led to Acre being chosen as the centre of the Latin kingdom and the art of building fortifications became more important than that of religious construction, due to the constant threats posed by the Mamluks and the Ayyubids. During the second half of the 13^th century, despite the tightening of the Mamluk noose, the Latin kingdom experienced a period of artistic achievement. The states of Antioch and Tripoli were however lost in 1268 and 1281. The conquest of Acre by al-Asraf Khalil and his Mamluks on 28^th of May 1291 finally put an end to the Latin states and crusader art to which they had given birth.  

In terms of religious architecture, the Franks drew much of their inspiration from the Byzantine tradition through their adoption of a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles, recessed apses and absidioles in a flat chevet (Churches of Abu Gosh, Ramla, Lod and the Church of Saint Mary of the Teutonic knights in Jerusalem) and the re-use of antique columns in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Cathedral of Tartus. The restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1149 brought together two Byzantine churches, which had been restored in the 11^th century, the rotunda of the Anastasis and the Church of the Crucifixion. 8^th century Abbasid columns and Byzantine mosaics decorate the magnificent southern door and a triumphal arch replaced the oriental Byzantine apse. It could legitimately be described as an architectural “pot-pourri” without any sense of unity of style. In Jerusalem, the Romanesque Church of St Anne has a dome supported by pendentives in the Byzantine style, but the crusaders simply transformed the mosques of the Dome of the Rock (Templum Domini) and al-Aqsa (Templum Salominus) into churches.

In the field of civil architecture, construction consisted mainly of fortified walls and “crusader castles”. The Franks were often happy enough to simply extend and strengthen already existing fortifications, as was the case at Jaffa, Arsur, Acre and Jerusalem. At Caesarea however in 1251 - 1252 the engineers of Saint Louis based their walls on Ayyubid foundations rendering them a true example of a cross-cultural construction. In the Latin states of Syria and Palestine we can observe three distinct types of fortified buildings: Norman style keeps generally found at some distance from towns or villages, which acted as a temporary refuge; “Castrum” type fortresses with strong curtain walls and corner towers such as Belvoir fortress, which dominates the Jordan valley; Hilltop fortresses such as the concentric Crac des Chevaliers in the county of Tripoli, which the Hospitallers altered many times before it was finally surrendered to Baybar’s troops in 1271, or Saone castle, which was constructed on an site previously fortified by the Byzantines.

M.B.