n the course of the 12th century Kastoria produced: two great ensembles of paintings; parts of the painted decoration in two churches; fourteen founder inscriptions; six founder portraits; and six icons of major artistic importance.

This abundance of high-quality art works enables us to get a picture of the city as an energetic centre of culture with important homegrown art.

The people who founded monuments in this era - Theodoros Limniotes and his wife Anna Radini, for instance - were members of the local nobility. They had close ties with Constantinople, which explains why the art was of such high quality and why the style of the monuments was modern, and even 'avant-garde'.

There were at least four painters working in the city: the frescoes in Agioi Anargyroi and Kasnitzis' church of Agios Nikolaos can be attributed to them. There were very possibly icon-painters at work in Kastoria as well, to judge by the large number of icons that have survived.

It has been shown that one of these painters undertook other work in the area as well - for instance the wall-paintings at the church of St George at Kurbinovo. This is further evidence of the city's contacts with its region, and of its cultural outreach.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the excellence of Kastoria's 12th-century art places these works among the finest achievements of Byzantine art.