Kyrenia (Girne) St. Hilarion Castle

This castle and royal summer palace makes an exciting and mildly strenuous half-day trip from Girne. 'Dieu d'Amour' was the name the Frankish knights bestowed upon it, and certainly from afar its extravagantly crenellated walls and towers tumbling over the craggy hilltop evoke a fairy-tale vision of bygone chivalry. From within, the paths and steps wind up through the three castle sections, one superimposed on the other, and culminating in the royal apartments ingeniously sheltered in their own natural courtyard of rock. Rose Macaulay, author of The Towers of Trebizond, described it as 'a picture book castle for elf kings', and Walt Disney is said to have used it as inspiration for the palace in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The path to the uppermost section of the castle is steep and slippery when wet, and not suitable for anyone with wobbly legs or balance. One Canadian tourist slipped and fell to his death here in recent years. Choose appropriate footwear. There's an element of confusion over the opening hours, with the signs at the bottom and top of the road to the castle apparently unable to agree upon a definitive timetable. The consensus seems to be that the castle opens daily at 09.00, and closes at either 16.30 or 17.00 (winter), whilst it's 09.00-18.00 in summer (admission J2.40/0.80 adults/students). A drive of 15 minutes from Girne brings you to the car park at the foot of St Hilanon, from here the walk up to the summit takes a good 20 minutes. Allow at least two hours to explore all the different levels of the castle.

Kyrenia St. Hilarion Castle (Enlarge)

There's no restaurant, though simple refreshments (coffee, tea, soft drinks and sweets) are on sale both outside by the entrance and, during the summer, inside the castle at the Great Hall.The energetic could carry a picnic to the 732m summit. On the drive back down the mountain, don't panic if the army patrol stops you next to the monument just near the military base. Far from being suspicious of what you're doing, it's much more likely that they'll simply ask you to wait whilst a tour bus winds its way up the road below. A word of warning though. Even if you feel sufficiently energised to trek up to the summit, don't be tempted to walk from the main road. One couple who did were afforded a very frosty reception when they reached the army barracks at the halfway point, subjected to a severe interrogation and forced to car-share with the next passing tourists. Stick to the car, or coach, and don't stop under any circumstances.

Touring St Hilanon Castle
From Girne you take the main road out towards Lefkosa, and as you leave the town behind, you can already pick out the distinctive shape of the Hilarion peak above you a little to the right. It was Durrell who first used the word 'Gothic' to describe the Kyrenia range, and their sharp pinnacles do lend them a fine Gothic silhouette. The Troodos on the other hand, rounder and more rolling, are more naturally allied to the domes of Byzantine inspiration. The much improved road network of the north is now such that a drive of just ten minutes brings you to the turn-off for St Hilarion, marked by a yellow sign to the right, shortly before the summit of the Lefkosa pass.

From here, after appearing to double back on itself, the narrow tarmac road winds for 2-3km and you will catch glimpses above of a soldier perched on a lofty crag, gun poised. He reveals himself on closer inspection to be made of metal. On the drive up, your eye may also have been caught by a prominent white building alone on its crag among the thickly forested hills towards Bellapais - not a magnificent private villa, but a military headquarters. The military is never far away in North Cyprus, and it is as well to accustom yourself to the idea and regard it as an interesting extra dimension to the island's sights. Don't be tempted to park in the car park you come to; this is for the military base opposite. Instead, continue on the winding road. Cresting a hill, the road swoops down and on the left is a large flat terrace, now the army's rifle range - appropriately enough, for it was here that the knights held Jousts and tournaments, watched by the ladies of the court waving coloured favours from the battlements.

The tarmac road terminates in a small car park where you will find the ticket kiosk. Tickets cost J2.40/0.80 for adults/students, and as seems to be the norm these days you get a small explanatory leaflet for your money. To the west you WlH notice the road continuing along the ridge of the mountains as it heads off 0 reach Karsjyaka. There is also a footpath from here down to the pretty Vlllage of Karmi (Turkish Karaman). The road of 29km to Kaqiyaka has been improved with a new tarmac surface and crash barriers, which infinitely improve the enjoyment of what used to be a painfully slow and bumpy journey. It is now perfectly possible to enjoy the spectacular mountain scenery and abundant wildlife without worrying about falling off the road, something that the driver of an abandoned Turkish tank clearly couldn't manage. The tank ran off the road a few years ago near Kar§iyaka, irrecoverably, and is now the subject of much local interest and several postcards. At the time of writing the final 5km of the road are still to be resurfaced and as such are far from comfortable. By taking a picnic, a morning visit to the castle could be followed by this drive, thereby turning the outing into a day trip. Halfway along the track is a crossroads forking left for Akc,ic,ek and right for Lapta, but you continue straight on for Kaqiyaka. The final stretch from Mt Kivang down to join the tarmac road is the most difficult. To the right of the road above Kar§iyaka you can spot a heavily ruined monastery.

Back at St Hilarion, the first section of the ascent through the castle now begins up well-laid steps and concrete paths. The main gate and outer walls were built originally by the Byzantines in the 11th century for extra defence, and these lowest parts were for the men-at-arms and the horses. In the many long sieges of medieval times this area and its cisterns were invaluable. The castle had its exposure to modern warfare too, serving in 1964 as a stronghold for Turkish Cypriots, Such were the castle's defences, even in ruin, that a garrison of boys was able to ward off the Greek attack. The Turkish army still used the castle until relatively recently, before moving out to their camp along the ridge. As the path climbs up it passes one of the cisterns, still in use, built up against the wall, and at the first corner where the path bends and forks to the right, you can see the stables where the animals were kept. After a few minutes' climb you reach the main gatehouse, a huge and powerful arched structure which originally closed with a drawbridge.

Entering the passage, a set of steps leads off to the church, quite well-preserved and still with traces of 12th-century paintings on the south (carpark) side of the wall. Some restoration work was done here in 1959. In size it is larger than you would expect for a castle chapel, and this is because it belonged originally to a 10th-century monastery built here by the Byzantines to honour St Hilarion, a hermit who had fled to Cyprus from the Holy Land to escape persecution. He died here in a nearby cave. An old man, 'unclean in person but very holy', he sought out refuge in the mountain, with its ample water supplies. Cypriot peasantry has long believed in evil spirits, kalikantzeroi as they call them, which take weird and wonderful forms and have to be appeased at certain times of year by being thrown freshly baked honey doughnuts. The demons who, by popular account, had until then held possession of this mountain-top, watched the hermit's arrival with dismay an" conspired to drive him off with hideous noises. His hearing was such, however, that he merely thanked them for welcoming him with music and settled down to his solitary life, leaving the nonplussed demons to look elsewhere for their doughnuts.

The area all around the church was originally the monastciy, and the series of rooms to the north and cast of it were the refectory, cellars and kitchen, and a belvedere. The refectory, the largest room in this group by far, was used in Lusigmn Crusader times as a banqueting hall, and has now been restored as a modest cafe selling tea and coffee, soft drinks and sweets. The echoing walls and huge vaulted ceiling and rafters of the hall preserve an atmosphere of bygone days, with its smoke-blackened fireplace at the far end. Doors lead on to its narrow vertiginous balcony with a splendid panorama down over Girnc and the coast. In good weather this makes an excellent resting place, and for those who relish heights, chairs can be brought out onto the balcony. On clear days, especially in winter, the snow-covered Taurus mountains of mainland Turkey can be seen, some 100km distant. In mid-2005 several rooms above the refectory resembled something of a building site. Renovation work, including the fitting of new windows and the provision of electricity, was being undertaken, although to what end was at the time unclear.

Immediately below is another series of rooms, thought to be barracks built for the Crusader knights in the 14th century. They are best reached by the stone steps that lead down from the main path just beyond the refectory, and are curious in that their floors follow the contours of the natural bedrock below. From the refectory in the central, middle section of the castle, you now continue to the uppermost and in many ways the most intriguing part, the royal apartments and watchtowers. The path zigzags steeply up on uneven rock steps. In the heavy rains and floods of 1968 it was washed away completely, and access to the castle summit was impossible. Just as the path begins, notice below you to the right a huge open cistern designed to collect winter rainfall.

At the top of the path, turn right and you now enter the royal area by passing through a Crusader archway guarded by a tower. Heavily overgrown with trees and bushes, this area was the main courtyard, cleverly sheltered by being wedged between the twin peaks of the summit. These peaks gave the mountain its first name of Didymos (Greek for twin), from which the non-Greek-speaking Crusaders arrived at the corruption 'Dieu d'Amour'.

Cyprus Hills Mountain Village advertisement showing the Queen's Window (Enlarge)

The tumbledown buildings immediately to your right on entering are the royal kitchens and waiting rooms. In the centre of the courtyard you may stumble across, but hopefully not into (thankfully it's railed off), a stagnant cistern sunk into the rock, and beyond it, at the farthest end, are the royal apartments themselves, closing off the western side of the courtyard. To reach these you follow the little path straight on through the undergrowth. The staircase which used to lead up to the first-floor gallery on the south side has recently caved in, but that on the northern (sea) side is still safe if somewhat overgrown. From it you emerge onto what is certainly the most evocative spot in the castle, a partly collapsed but elegant gallery, still Gaining two Gothic tracery windows, the further one with charming stone window scats on cither side. Popularly known as the Queen's Window, it is here that Queen Elinor, the scheming queen of the Lusignans, is said to have sat. Today the view over to the west is a spectacular one, with the little white picture-book village of Karaman in the foreground. This is now an expatriate village, formerly Greek Karmi, leased by the Ministry of Tourism to foreigners wishing to restore and live in old-style village houses. Returning to the front part of the courtyard, the sure-footed can now climb the ragged steps and clamber along the ramparts and ruined tower to the southern peak, the highest point at 732m.

The rickety iron railings have been replaced with a chunkier, more robust handrail that makes the ascent an altogether less daunting prospect than used to be the case. Just outside the courtyard area as you begin the descent, another set of rough steps leads off to your right to ascend the 14th-century Prince John's Tower, a powerfully built watchtower on a rocky crag. It was from here that the gullible Prince John of Antioch in 1373 flung his faithful Bulgarian guards to their death, after receiving a fabricated warning about them from Queen Elinor. All but one were smashed on the rocks below and it was he who survived to tell the tale.

In the structure of the castle, each of the three defensive sections was self-supporting, with its own cisterns and supply depots. All of the three castles in the Kyrenia range - St Hilarion, Buffavento and Kantara - were originally built as defence from Arab raids. From the 7th to the 10th century, the Arabs launched a succession of raids on Cyprus and all along the coast of Turkey. The worst was that conducted in 806 by the Caliph Haroun ar-Rashid of One Thousand and One Nights fame, in which the Arabs ravaged much of the island and abducted 16,000 as prisoners, including the archbishop and many other ecclesiastics. The goal of the raids was booty and prisoners, never to conquer and rule. The Arab armies still had many Bedouin in whom the tradition ot 'raiding' (Arabic ghazwa) was deeply rooted as a way of life. With the fighting for the Arab empire largely over, they had to find an alternative outlet for their energies and these raids were sanctioned by their leaders as a convenient method of keeping the armies fit and trained.

The continuing raids had a marked effect on the population distribution, causing people to leave the coast and move inland to the hills. St Hilarion Castle served as a place of refuge and summer residence for the island's kings for some 400 years after this. It was not only to escape the heat ot Nicosia that they came here, but sometimes also to flee great plagues. In the summer of 1349 the Black Death swept the island and the royal entourage beat a hasty retreat from Nicosia to the safe and healthy heights of Hilarion-Estimates of the number of people who died range from a quarter to half tbc island's population. The castle has, like its sisters Buffavento and Kantara, been a ruin since the 16th century, when the merchants of Venice, whose preoccupations always lay with the sea, methodically dismantled it to deter any troublesome insurrections that might arise in the island's interior and thus distract them from their trading activities. 'Happy is the country that has no history' runs the saying. Cyprus, Gordon Home's 'unhappy shuttlecock', has too much. Its geographical location, stepping stone to the East from the Western viewpoint, and to the West from the Eastern viewpoint, has condemned it always to be the victim of predatory powers. Throughout its long past, Cyprus raised revolts against its rulers of the day, but they were nearly always quashed. Only on two occasions before 1960 did Cyprus experience independence. The first was in 367bc under the first king of the island, Evagoras, and the second was in 1184 under Isaac Comnenus.

Independence was, however, not necessarily any better for the Cypriots themselves, and it was in fact under the despotic rule of Isaac Comnenus that they suffered especially. Yet by a twist of fate, the rashness of this despot led to the Crusaders becoming rulers of the island. Cyprus was ruled at that time from Constantinople, by a Byzantine official sent to the island as local governor. Even so, the island continued to be unceremoniously raided, three times in the 12th century, first by Raymond of Chatillon, then by Egyptian bandits, then by Raymond Prince of Antioch. Isaac Comnenus was the nephew of the Byzantine emperor, and after a family dispute he fied to Cyprus and had himself proclaimed, through force and guile, the ruler of the island. He starved and robbed the wealthy, murdered and ravished young virgins at whim. His tyrannical seven-year rule was thus chronicled:

The island groaned beneath this scourge of fate, and he reduced the Cypriots to such a state of despair that all were ready to welcome anything which afforded a means of escape from such tyranny.

His violence and temper met their match, however, in the person of Richard the Lionheart. Richard was on his way to the Holy Land in the Third Crusade С€ 1191 when some of his ships were wrecked off the Cypriot coast. Isaac Comnenus rushed to the scene and seized the booty. In the process however, he unwisely insulted two of the passengers, Berengaria, Richard's betrothed, and Joanna, his favourite sister. Enraged at Isaac's effrontery, Richard, who had had no intention of conquering Cyprus, pursued Comnenus and unceremoniously defeated him. Isaac's daughter was locked up in St Hilarion. Richard despatched his knights to take the rest of the island and in turn helped himself to large quantites of booty, as was customary. He stayed on the island long enough to marry the dark-eyed Berengaria, daughter of the king of Navarre, and one tradition recounts that Isaac, gift-wrapped in gilt chains, was brought to the queen as a wedding present.

Thoough generally presented as a hero, Richard was in fact not much different to Cyprus's previous rulers. The Archbishop of Sinai, chronicling events in 1766, described him as a 'bloodthirsty beast', lamenting that the poor Cypriots 'had escaped the wolf to fall into the jaws of the bear'. On leaving the island, Richard sold it to the Knights Templar for 100,000 byzants (the medieval gold currency of Europe), to raise money for his army and the crusade. The knights, however, found it more of a handful than they bargained for, and after only a year they besought Richard to buy it back.

The English king had already received nearly half the sale price and did not wish to lose his money. Instead, he persuaded Guy de Lusignan, a Prankish nobleman who had been King of Jerusalem before it was lost to Saladin, to take it on in compensation for the loss of the kingdom of Jerusalem. De Lusignan accepted, and his family retained the kingship of the island for the next three centuries, until 1489. De Lusignan's reign was always feudal in style, and did not represent an improvement for the Cypriots themselves. They were serfs with, no rights or privileges, working the land and heavily taxed to pay for the extravagances of the nobles. Some were even bartered by their masters in exchange for dogs or horses.

Also subjugated at this time was the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, scorned by the French-speaking Latin Catholic rulers. Its treasures were robbed and its bishops burnt as heretics when they refused to bow to Catholic dominance and recognise the Pope in Rome as head of all Christendom. The appointment of an Orthodox archbishop was banned, and it was in these centuries that the Greek Orthodox monasteries, hidden away in the mountain ranges, were established. Cyprus had long been a refuge for Christianity during difficult times in the Holy Land, and when the last Christian stronghold of Acre fell in 1191, Cyprus took on the role of Latin Christianity's easternmost outpost, becoming the trading centre of the eastern Mediterranean, and bringing its rulers much wealth and prosperity. The relics of this prosperity are left to us today in the cathedrals of Lefkosa and Gazimagusa, the castles of St Hilarion, Buffavento and Kantara, and the unrivalled Bellapais Abbey.

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