Morea

The Morea (Greek: Μωρέας or Μωριάς, French: Morée, Italian: Morea, Turkish: Mora) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, and by the Republic of Venice for the short-lived Kingdom of the Morea.

Origins of the name

There is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name "Morea", which is first recorded only in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles.

Traditionally scholars thought the name originated from the word morea (μορέα), meaning morus or mulberry, a tree which, though known in the region from the ancient times, gained value after the 6th century, when silkworms were smuggled from China to Byzantium. Then the mulberry began to be planted so copiously in the Peloponnesus that the plain around Thebes came to be known as Morokampos and Thebes gained renown for its silk. No silk is now made at Thebes and mulberry trees are not prominent, but the Theban plain retains its name Morokampos from the mulberry trees which once gave the town its prosperity.

Morea (disambiguation)

Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula during the Middle Ages.

Morea may also refer to:

See also

Morea (Charlottesville, Virginia)

Morea is a historic home located at Charlottesville, Virginia. It was built in 1835, and is a 2 1/2-story, three bay, vernacular brick dwelling. It features an original recessed second-story verandah, an interior structural arcade, and a semidetached office wing. It is the only surviving dwelling built by one of the original University of Virginia faculty members approved by Thomas Jefferson. Its owner, John Patten Emmet, was the school's first professor of natural history.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

References