The Legacy of Joseph Barnabas in Cyprus

My camera lens could not get all of the castle in one shot, so I took three photos and merged them together in Photoshop to produce a panorama view.

Actually, if you read anything about the life of St. Hilarion, you wonder how in the world he ever got that name. He seems to have been a tormented soul.

We drove through the checkpoint into the Turkish occupied north to see the Castle of Hilarion. I had to pay 30 euros for insurance for our rental car for a month to drive in the north. Interestingly, the man at the insurance sales booth insisted on euros instead of Turkish currency.

Some of the views of the surrounding area were spectacular from the Castle of Hilarion.

St. Hilarion’s castle perches high on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Originally, the site was a monastery named after Hilarion, but later the Byzantines recognized the strategic importance of the location and fortified it. During the Lusignan rule over Cyprus in the 12^th century, the castle was expanded. It must have been a splendid structure. The Venetians, however, dismantled much of the castle in the 15^th century as part of their cost cutting measures.

Walking to the top of the castle requires some effort, but the remains of the once-glorious structure are worth investigating. The view from the top is worth the climb. Some of the steps were obviously made for people who were much smaller than I am. The modern addition of handrails makes the ascent and descent fairly safe. I could not help but wonder how many workers fell down the steps over the centuries.

The castle walls seem to grow out of the rock on the mountain. Hauling water and supplies up to the top must have been a lot of work. And I find it hard to imagine how much effort it took to construct the castle. The thought of setting blocks of stone in place on the various walls, with hundreds of feet of nothing but air below, makes me thankful that I am a professor.

The castle in Kyrenia dominates the harbor area.

We also drove to Kyrenia (renamed Girne by the Turks), where we walked around a Venetian castle by the harbor. The walls are impressively thick. We wandered around the grounds for a while. Then we drove to see the Bellapais Abbey (from the French Abbaye de le Belle Paix—Abbey of Peace). The ruins of the abbey reveal that once it was a magnificent Gothic structure. To be truthful, however, I wonder how the grand buildings have remained standing over the centuries. The limestone construction shows signs of crumbling. I imagine that the limestone was far easier to quarry and shape for the walls than harder rock. But most of the stones are deeply pocked from the weather over the centuries.

I took three pictures of the interior area of the Kyrenia Castle and merged them together with Photoshop. The resulting photo gives an idea of the size of the castle.

We learned nothing about Barnabas, but we had a good day walking around some impressive sites. And, true to form, we got lost twice: once in Kyrenia and once in north Nicosia. Finding our way back to the border crossing proved to be very tricky. We had heard that it was problematic. Next time, we must take decisive steps to mark out the return route. Getting stuck in traffic in the old city is not my idea of fun.