Castle or basilica?
Point 13/15
Unknown
Year of construction
Unknown architect
Architect
From the bustling restaurant square, we will admire the castle, one of the symbols of the city.
Every European city once had its own fortification, and you have probably seen quite a few fortifications in your life. The Limassol one makes aspecial impression: its horizontal divisions, layering of streamlined forms (especially with evening illumination) are more reminiscent of the concrete architecture of the 20th century. One can’t help thinking that perhaps it is because of this unique appearance that concrete architecture has received avibrant creative development in the city.
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Here, as guides like to say, thousands of leagues from their native shores, the English king Richard the Lionheart, who was already on the Third Crusade, en route to the Holy Land, married Berengaria of Navarre, crowning her Queen of England (1191). Since, the Kingdom of Cyprus existed 300 years, between 1192 and 1489.
However, there was no castle on this site then: archaeologists have proved that the base of the current structure is an early Christian basilica (IV–VII centuries AD), which was enlarged later. Let’s keep in mind that Cyprus was part of the Byzantine Empire for some 900 years.
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During the Renaissance, around 1400, the basilica was rebuilt into a castle (as happened, for example, with one of the wonders of the world, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in present-day Bodrum). A century later, the Venetians destroyed the castle, and what we see now is its reconstruction after the establishment of Ottoman rule (1576).
The Cyprus Medieval Museum located inside exhibits Byzantine eraplates, weapons, crosses, and coins.
From here, we will walk along Genethliou Mitella Street to the Great Mosque.
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