Bellapais Abbey

Bellapais Abbey (picture from online)

Bellapais Abbey is an old historical site founded in the thirteenth century.  The name has a French meaning "Monastery of Peace".  It was also referred to as the "White Abbey" which came from the dress attire of the Monks that lived in the Abbey. 

This site was originally smaller but benefited from different rulers through the expansions and developments.  Today's remains were the influence of Hugh III and IV which display some of the finest examples of Gothic Architecture.  In that era the Abbey flourished and attained large wealth from many visitors.  One such endowment came from a knight who gave the Abbey a "Piece of the true cross."  Unfortunately in 1373 the Genoese Invasion began and the Abbey's wealth was looted, including the cross.  From that time on the Abbey declined and never regained its notoriety.  The Ottoman's took over North Cyprus and the Monks fled.  The church was then given to Greek Orthodox and preservation began.  SO there you have the history of the Abbey.

Here are some photos that we took of this marvelous site;

The first room near the entrance...  A church

The entrance and bell tower..  What is remaining 

A sample of the 18 arches that surrounded the courtyard

The boys posing by one of the storage/ treasure rooms

So one day in the cooler afternoon with the sun shining, we decided to take a taxi to the Abbey.  All of us stuffed ourselves into a Ford Taurus type of vehicle.  Now realize there was;  Reed, Joan, Nate, Connor, Sam and I.  The taxi drive told us that it was no problem for us to fit in his vehicle.  So Reed got the comfort of the front seat.....    then Sam sat on grandma's lap, Nate sat in the middle and Connor sat on my lap.  Sure enough we did fit.  A little squished, but we all fit.

Off we went driving the 20 minutes up into the mountains to the Abbey.  It was a very pretty drive into the mountains.  And before we knew it...  we were in the small village of Bellapais.  This was not their tourist season, but still most of the quaint little shops; glass blower, fabric seller, rug shop, and such were open.

The Abbey was an incredible site.  Walking around and seeing this building that has withstood; wars, rulers, looting, weather, and whatever else, is amazing.  We walked everywhere to see every view.  There was an entrance into the dining hall were you could still see the coats of arms (Cyprus, Jerusalem and Lusignans).  The dining hall has a pulpit for prayer/preaching to the monks during their meals.  It was all incredible to see and we were all glad that we went.

The coat of arms  -photo obtained by online

So when we were finished viewing the site, we squished ourselves back into the same vehicle for our ride home.  Sam fell asleep on Grandma's lap and when he awoke; there was a nice big drool spot on her shirt.  NICE!  Gotta love kids!

Side note; when I went to download my photos from our vacation to our home computer and an online website, I made a very big mistake and deleted almost all the pictures on the camera. UGH!! I could go into great details about how it happened and how I was PROBABLY not at fault. BUT I will spare you the boring details and just say... I did it. So you will see more photos from online in these blogs from this vacation.

Girne Kalesi -Kyrenia Castle

Our first adventure was to visit the Girne Kalesi (English-  Kyrenia Castle)  The following information I obtained from books and brochures;

The castle-  Photo obtain by online

Excavations of the castle revealed a Hellenistic/ Roman design with an estimated date back in the 7th Century BC.  They believe that it originally was built to defend the city from Arab raids.  The first historical record was in 1191 when King Richard Lionheart of England had captured the castle.  They believe that initially the castle was small but was enlarged by each ruler.  The first enlarging of the castle occurred in 1208 to 1211 during the reign of King John d"Ibelin.  His main purpose of the castle was for military.  He used the Byzantium style to fortify the castle; built the towers, the embrasures for archers and the dungeons.  The castle was almost destroyed in 1373.  The Venetians took control in 1489.  Their renovations; fortify the existing walls and enlarged the castle which then encompassed a small church that had been built prior.  Finally, in 1570 the castle was controlled by the Ottomans, but their additions were manly destroyed during the British colonial period.  And there you have it... the history portion of the blog.

SO what did we think of it.  Well we loved it.  It is a huge castle in which you can explore.  There are many rooms to see, displays throughout the castle, towers and dungeons.  The kids were having a great time running off, beating us to dungeons, rooms or displays, and then meeting us at the entrance to tell us, like a tour guide, what the room was all about.  We have boys and boys love exploring so this was right up our alley. 

Note-  They were on tight leash when we walked around on the top of the castle walls.  But overall the kids had running room and freedom.  The displays were a wide range of things, typical soldier uniforms from different periods, weapons, cooking pots, a shipwreck, and so forth.  BUT in one particular dungeon, that the kids had seen prior to our walking arrival, was a bit too scary for Sam.  He came back running to us, with a shocked look on his face, telling us there was scary stuff at the bottom of the steps.  When we got to the bottom we saw the display of the mannequin soldier and the naked mannequin man being stretched (tortured) on a round wheel.  Hmm.... maybe we need to keep a tighter leash on the kids so we could screen the displays prior to them seeing it.  BUT how were we supposed to know.  Too late, Sam is scarred for life.  Just kidding- Sam is not scarred for life, but he was a bit upset by what he saw in that dungeon.

Here are some photos of the Castle;

Just inside the castle at a display

Nate is the guard and new statue

I was freaking out with Sam leaning over the ledge, but holding onto him

On the top castle walls (Grandma and her boys)

As you can see, we had a great time exploring this castle.  This was several hours of run and fun time on a cool sunny day.