Castles

Cyprus was worth taking. Copper, timber, grain and a position between three continents made it a target for almost everyone who could reach it, and the castles are what that history left behind — Byzantine foundations rebuilt by Lusignans, refortified by Venetians and adapted again under the Ottomans. This site documents 7 castles, listed by district further down the page.

The coastal castles

Limassol Castle stands in the middle of the old town near the harbour and now holds the island’s medieval museum. Larnaca Castle sits at the southern end of the Foinikoudes seafront, founded in the Byzantine period and used since as fort, prison and museum. Paphos Castle, at the western end of the harbour, is the one on all the postcards and the backdrop to the town’s festivals.

Inland of Limassol, Kolossi Castle is the most complete of them: a compact keep 14 kilometres west of the city, first built in the thirteenth century and rebuilt in the fifteenth, and closely tied to the history of Commandaria wine.

The mountain castles

Three castles were built along the Pentadaktylos ridge to watch the northern coast, and they are among the most spectacularly sited buildings in the eastern Mediterranean. Buffavento stands at 954 metres, the highest of them and the hardest to reach. Kantara guards the eastern end of the range above Trikomo, and St Hilarion the western approach to Kyrenia.

On the coast below, Othello Castle guards the harbour of the walled city of Famagusta. All four are in the occupied part of the island.

Visiting

The coastal castles are compact, take under an hour each, and two of them house museums that are worth the admission on their own. The mountain castles are a different proposition entirely: expect a steep walk from the car park, take water, and go in the morning or out of season rather than in the middle of a summer afternoon. The views from all three are the reason to go.