Kyrenia Castle
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Kyrenia Castle ( ) is a 16th-century castle built by the Venetians over a previous Crusader fortification. Within its walls lies a twelfth-century chapel showing reused late
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capitals, and the Shipwreck Museum.


History

Kyrenia has existed since the 10th century BC. Excavations have revealed Greek traces that date back to the 7th century BC, but the site was developed into a city under Roman rule. Research carried out at the site suggests that the Byzantines built the original castle in the 7th century to guard the city against the new Arab maritime threat. The first historical reference to the castle occurs in 1191, when King
Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion () because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ru ...
captured it on his way to the
Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...
by defeating Isaac Comnenus, an upstart local governor who had proclaimed himself
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. After a short period, Richard sold the island to the
Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...
who could not control it because of peasant revolt, and then to his cousin Guy de Lusignan, the former king of
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. This began the 300 years of the Frankish
Lusignan The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries du ...
Kingdom of Cyprus The Kingdom of Cyprus (; ) was a medieval kingdom of the Crusader states that existed between 1192 and 1489. Initially ruled as an independent Christian kingdom, it was established by the French House of Lusignan after the Third Crusade. I ...
(1192–1489). Initially the castle was quite small. John d'Ibelin enlarged it between 1208 and 1211. The castle's main function was military and the improvements consisted of a new entrance, square and horseshoe-shaped towers,
embrasure An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of Age of Gunpowder, gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a sp ...
s for archers, and dungeons. The castle was subjected to several sieges. A Genoese attack in 1373 almost destroyed the castle, and the longest amongst the sieges, in the 15th century, lasted nearly four years and reduced the unfortunate occupants to eating mice and rats. By 1489 the Venetians had taken control of Cyprus and in 1540 they enlarged the castle, giving it its present-day appearance. The chief changes, such as the addition of thick walls and embrasures for cannons, were adaptations to changes in warfare in the form of gunpowder artillery. The Venetians also installed gun ports at three levels so that they could direct cannon fire against attackers from the land. Inside the castle, they built huge long ramps so as to be able to drag artillery up on the walls. When the work on the castle was finished, its walls also encompassed the small church of St. George, which the Byzantines may have built in the 11th or 12th century. In 1570, Kyrenia surrendered to the
Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...
. The Ottomans too made changes to the castle, but the British removed these during their occupation. The castle contains the tomb of the Ottoman Admiral Sadik Pasha. The British used the castle as a police barracks and training school. They also used the castle as a prison for members of the Greek Cypriot
EOKA The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA ; ) was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of Cyprus#Cyprus under the British Empire, British rule in Cyprus, and for enosis, eventual union with K ...
organization. The Kyrenia Department of Antiquities took over custodianship of the castle in 1950, though it reverted to British control during the EOKA turmoil. The Department regained control in 1959 and since 1960 the castle has been open to the public. However, during the period from 1963 to 1967 the
Cypriot National Guard The National Guard of Cyprus (), also known as the Greek Cypriot National Guard or simply the National Guard, is the military force of the Republic of Cyprus. It consists of air, land, sea and special forces elements, and is highly integrated wit ...
used the castle as a military headquarters. Following the
Turkish invasion of Cyprus The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish Cy ...
, in 1974 the Girne Department of Antiquities and Museums took over responsibility for the castle's preservation and use. The Department is keeping icons that were collected from churches in the Kyrenia area pre-1974 and has stored them in the castle's locked rooms for safekeeping. Some of these are now on display in the Archangel Michael Church.


Current features

The moat on the landward side of the castle was full of water prior to the 14th century AD and served as a harbour to the castle. One enters the castle through its north-west entrance, which opens on a bridge spanning the moat. From the first gate, lying to the north west of the fortified wall that the Venetians built, one comes to a vaulted corridor that leads to the entrance of the Lusignan castle. A passage to the left of the corridor gives entry to the cruciform Church of St. George. The dome of this church rests on marble columns with Corinthian capitals that were salvaged from an older building elsewhere and placed here. The tomb in the entrance corridor of the Lusignan castle belongs to the Ottoman Admiral Sadik Pasha who conquered Kyrenia in 1570. The corridor then leads to the castle's large inner courtyard, which is lined with guardrooms, stables and living quarters. The arched rooms (royal guard rooms, prison etc.) to the north and east of the yard belong to the Lusignan Period. The Royal quarters to the west of the yard, as well as the big and arched windows of the little Latin Temple also date back to the Lusignan Period. On the southern part of the yard there are fortifications and remains belonging to the Byzantine Period. Ramps lead to the defences on the upper sections of the walls. One can climb steps to the Lusignan royal apartments and a small chapel. The depths of Kyrenia Castle contain dungeons, storage rooms and the powder
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. Off the courtyard, there is a room displaying the finds from various archaeological sites such as the Akdeniz village tomb, the
Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
settlement at Vrysi, and the Kirni Bronze Age tomb. There is also a small souvenir shop and simple cafe at the northern end of the courtyard.


Shipwreck museum

One of the rooms leading off the courtyard contains the Shipwreck Museum, which exhibits the remains of a Greek merchant ship from the 4th century BC, one of the oldest vessels ever to be recovered, together with its cargo. In 1965, Andreas Kariolou, a Greek-Cypriot diver, discovered the vessel, laden with millstones and
amphorae An amphora (; ; English ) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land ...
of wine from Kos and
Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...
. The vessel was sailing to Cyprus when a storm wrecked it outside Kyrenia harbour. In 1967 he showed the wreck to archeologists. A team, under Michael Katsev of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology The Penn Museum is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, at the intersection of 33rd and South Streets. Housing over 1.3 mi ...
, then studied the wreck from 1969 to 1974. The vessel was approximately already 80 years old at the time it sank. Today, the , made of Aleppo pine sheathed in lead, is preserved in a specially controlled environment in the Museum, together with its amphorae.


Popular culture

A large part of the
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2009 game '' Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines'' takes place in Kyrenia and the castle.


References


External links

*
Kyrenia Castle guide with pictures
{{coord, 35, 20, 29, N, 33, 19, 20, E, display=title, region:CY_type:landmark_source:GNS-enwiki Buildings and structures completed in the 16th century Castles in Northern Cyprus Museums in Northern Cyprus Castles and fortifications of the Knights Templar
Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
Venetian fortifications in Cyprus