The Cyprus Institute

Nikolas Bakirtzis

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Nikolas Bakirtzis is Associate Professor and Director of the Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories (APAC Labs) at the Cyprus Institute (CyI) in Nicosia. He is also Coordinator of CyI's Science and Technology in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage doctoral program. With a PhD in Art and Architectural History from Princeton University, his research and publications focus on byzantine monasticism, medieval cities and fortifications, and, the island landscapes of the Byzantine, Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean. More recently his work explores issues of heritage and cultural identity in historic cities. In the context of APAC Labs research, his work focuses on aspects of  the history, the materiality and the provenance of medieval and early modern works of art enhanced through the use of advanced digital and analytical methods. He also works on issues related to heritage at risk, including looting and illicit trafficking of antiquities, as well as, the impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage coordinating the Task Force on Cultural Heritage in the context of the Cyprus Republic's Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Region Climate Change Initiative. 

He has been Resident Fellow at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations of Koc University in Istanbul (2005-2006), Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology (2006-2008). He was also Cass Gilbert Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Research Associate at the Center for World Heritage Sites of the University of Minnesota (2008-2009). In 2009, Dr. Bakirtzis was awarded a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant by the European Commission and joined CyI to direct the project 'Tracing Identity in the Eastern Mediterranean; A Digital Survey of Late Medieval Monuments in the Eastern Mediterranean Islands'. In 2013 he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, and during the 2015 summer term he joined Columbia University’s Global Program in Istanbul as Visiting Faculty. In the Spring of 2016, he was Getty Guest Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and in 2017 he was awarded a Getty Foundation Connecting Art Histories grant along with D. Fairchild Ruggles to pursue a two-year program focusing on the layered art histories of historic Mediterranean cities. His work has also been supported by grants and fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks, the European Commission, the A.G. Leventis Foundation and the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. In the summer of 2024 he will be Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Tübingen.

His publications include: The Routledge Handbook of the Byzantine city (2024, co-edited with Lucan Zavagno); “The Built Environment and the Exprerience of Fortified Cities in Byzantium” (forthcoming 2025);  “Beyond Capitals: Urbanism in Cyprus between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (ca.600-ca.1100 CE.)” (forthcoming 2025, with Luca Zavagno); “Progress Towards a Byzantine-Medieval Historic Buildings Tree-Ring Chronology from Cyprus Using Dendrochronology" (2023, with Sturt Manning, Brita Lorentzen, Mehmetcan Soyluoglu); “Painting Layers and Secrets of a Reused Canvas: Titian’s Ecce Homo in the Pittas Collection” (2022, with Sorin Hermon, Svetlana Gasanova and Ropertos Georgiou); “Architecture and the Monastic Experience” (2023); “Tradition and Transition on the Slopes of the Pentadaktylos Mountain on Thirteenth-Century Cyprus” (2023); “Perceptions, Histories and Urban Realities of Thessaloniki’s Layered Past” (2022); “Karamanlides at Saint John Lambadistis Monastery in Kalopanayiotis: Pilgrimage Votives, Architecture and Sacred Landscape” (2020, with Stelios Irakleous); “Giovanni Baronzio's 'Crucifixion': Analytical Approaches and Art Historical Considerations” (2020, with Svetlana Gasanova and Sorin Hermon); “Assessing Visual Perception in Heritage Sites with Visual Acuity: Case study of the Cathedral of St. John the Theologian in Nicosia, Cyprus” (2020, with Martina Pollig, Despina Papacharalambous and Sorin Hermon); “Hagiographic Narratives and Archaeological Realities Revisiting the Beginnings of Christianity in Cyprus" (2020, with Athanasios Papageorgiou), “Revisiting the Monastic Legacy of Saint Sozomenos near Potamia” (2019), “Mastic Production in Medieval Chios: Economic Flows and Transitions in an Insular Setting” (2019, with Xenophpn Moniaros); “Fortifications as Urban Heritage: The Case of Nicosia in Cyprus and a Glance at the City of Rhodes” (2017); “Non-invasive Sub-surface Analysis of the Male Portrait Underlying the Ecce Homo Painting attributed to Titian’s Studio" (2017, with Svetlana Gasanova and Sorin Hermon); “Spatially-Organized Virtual Narratives of Contested Urban Space: Digital Methods of Mapping the Spatial Experience of Shared Heritage” (2016, with G. Artopoulos and S. Hermon), “Locating Virtual Environments of Contested Urban Space” (2014, with G. Artopoulos); “Architecture and the Monastic Experience” (2015), “Locating Byzantine Monasteries: Spatial Considerations and Strategies in the Rural Landscape” (2013), “The Fortifications of Byzantine Cities: Aesthetics, Ideology and Symbolisms” (2012, in Greek), “Thessaloniki and its Walls: Aspects of a Continuous Relationship” (2013), “Library Spaces in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monasteries” (2012), “Between the Mountain and the Lake; Tower, Folklore and Monastery at Agios Vasileios near Thessaloniki” (2011), Prodromos Monastery near Serres; Historical, Archaeological, Cultural Values and the distractive fire of December 13th 2010 (2011), “The Architecture of the Synodikon Room in the Hegoumeneion of Prodromos Monastery near Serres” (2011), “The Practice, Perception and Experience of Byzantine Fortification” (2010).