thumb|right|Fantastical depiction of Trebizond by Pisanello in a fresco of the Sant'Anastasia church in Verona, painted between 1436 and 1438 Together with Persian goods, Italian traders brought stories about the city to Western Europe. Trebizond played a mythical role in European literature of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Miguel de Cervantes and François Rabelais gave their protagonists the desire to possess the city.'The lure of Trebizond' by Antony Eastmond, in Byzantium's Other Empire: Trebizond, p. 22, 2016, Istanbul Next to literature, the legendary history of the city – and that of the Pontus in general – also influenced the creation of paintings, theatre plays and operas in Western Europe throughout the following centuries.
thumb|right|Fantastical depiction of Trebizond by Pisanello in a fresco of the Sant'Anastasia church in Verona, painted between 1436 and 1438 Together with Persian goods, Italian traders brought stories about the city to Western Europe. Trebizond played a mythical role in European literature of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Miguel de Cervantes and François Rabelais gave their protagonists the desire to possess the city.'The lure of Trebizond' by Antony Eastmond, in Byzantium's Other Empire: Trebizond p. 22, 2016, Istanbul Next to literature, the legendary history of the city – and that of the Pontus in general – also influenced the creation of paintings, theatre plays and operas in Western Europe t,hroughout the following centuries.