Byzie – Vize, a good and strong Byzantine kastron in Thrace

The city of Bizye, today known as Vize, is located in Thrace, northeast of Arkadiopolis. Byzantine historical sources describe it as a kastron, polisma, polichnion, or polis. Bizye played a significant role throughout Byzantine history as a stronghold and a place of exile for religious dissidents. It still retains important medieval remains.

Historical Context.

The City of Bizye in the Early Byzantine Period.

Bizye was a polis in the late antique province of Europe. In 431, it became a bishopric. Later in the 5th century, it evolved into an archbishopric suffragan of Heraclea before becoming autocephalous. The city served as a place of exile for important ecclesiastical dissidents like Eustathios of Antioch, who settled there in 353 and died, and Maximos the Confessor.

Beginning in the 6th century, water was piped from Bizye to Constantinople via a complex aqueduct system. Some of these pipes are still visible today. In 773 or 774, Emperor Constantine V built a bridge in Bizye.

The Dark Ages and Middle Byzantine Times.

Bizye was a fortified settlement, likely since the early Byzantine period. At the Council in Trullo in 692, the town was probably referred to as Uzusa, with Georgios as its bishop.

Emperor Constantine V constructed a bridge there in 773 or 774. Bulgarian Khan Krum likely captured and destroyed Bizye.

The stronghold played a crucial role during the revolt of Thomas the Slav in 823. His stepson sought refuge in Bizye but eventually surrendered to the emperor or was handed over by the city’s residents. During the 9th and 10th centuries, Bizye was the seat of a tourmaches. The city was the setting for the Vita of Mary the Younger, a saint who died there in the 9th century and was buried in its church. The Vita describes Bizye as a polis but notes that its inhabitants engaged in agricultural work. Mary, the spouse of Nikephoros, the tourmarches of Bizye, lived there from her marriage in 896 until her death in 903. She was buried in the church, and her cult became popular in Bizye and surrounding regions.

Bulgarian Emperor Simeon I captured Bizye around 925 after a five-year siege, illustrating the stronghold’s power. Simeon destroyed the city’s walls, and most of the population fled to nearby Medea. He later ordered the walls to be rebuilt.

In the 12th century, Arab geographer al-Idrisi described Bizye as a large, well-fortified city in a fertile valley with thriving commerce and industry. The Byzantine army was dispatched in 1199 to repel the Cumans, who were looting eastern Thrace, but their initial success was squandered due to the troops’ greed.

Frank Domination and the Late Byzantine Period.

After the sack of Constantinople in April 1204, Bizye was assigned to the new Latin Empire. However, it did not submit until March 1205, along with Arcadiopolis and Tzurulon. One month later, the Latin army was defeated by a combined force of Bulgars and Cumans led by Tsar Kaloyan, who then launched invasions throughout eastern Thrace. Bizye remained unaffected by these incursions, unlike most neighboring cities. In 1206, Emperor Henry of Flanders set up his camp in Bizye, which chronicler Geoffrey of Villehardouin honored as “good and strong.”

After 1225, an Epirote force under Despot Theodore Komnenos Doukas marched on Bizye but failed to capture it. In 1237, the Cumans again invaded Thrace, capturing and enslaving many of Bizye’s residents. In 1247, Bizye came under the control of John III Doukas Vatatzes, then allied with the Bulgarians.

At the end of 1255 or beginning of 1256, Emperor Theodore II Laskaris defeated a combined Bulgarian and Cuman force between Bizye and Bulgarophygon. He then concluded a peace treaty that fixed the border in the upper Maritsa valley. From 1286 to 1355, Bizye was the center of one of three military districts called megala allagia, along with Thessaloniki and Serres. This district covered the area from Mesembria in the north to Arcadiopolis in the west and the suburbs of Constantinople in the east.

In 1304, Emperor Michael IX and Michael Doukas Glabas Tarchaneiotes assembled a large army in Bizye to stop an incursion by Theodore Svetoslav of Bulgaria. The Byzantines were defeated at Skaphidas and again at Bizye.

Bizye was one of the key points during the Civil War of 1341-1347, and its demos actively participated in the political struggle and in the 14th century, it became a metropolis.

Bizye was finally taken by the Turks in 1453.

Byzantine remains in modern Vize.

Remains of the ramparts still survive in the city. Some scholars suggest that their upper part could date back to the 6th century, while others attribute this section to the Palaiologan era.