Cornelis de Bruyn, a Dutchman from The Hague in 1683:
... CONVENT DE LA PAIX ...

In 1683 Cornelis de Bruyn (*), a native of the Hague (Den Haag in the Netherlands or Holland), stopped at St. Chrysostomos monastery to the south of the Kyrenia range before scaling the ruins of Buffavento, and then following the mountain ridge to the west (evidently by way of Vouno and the Kakoscala Pass), descending eventually to Bellapais Abbey set amongst the citrus groves: 'The next morning we journeyed towards the convent called De la Paix, said to have been built by the Templars. The road is carried with great difficulty across the mountains: at last one sees close to one the convent pleasantly situated in a wood, orange trees, olives, palm and other fruit trees surround it, and above them all towers a very tall cypress. In the distance is seen the village of Sternia (Kyrenia, Girne), and close by it, on the shore, a fine old castle. Some mountains lie in the background.'

De Bruyn describes (Cobham's translation) the ruins when they were more complete than they are at present (**): "The entrance gate is remarkably high, quite the height of eight men (sic), and nine palms thick. It is a kind of fortress in itself and pretty well entire. Passing this gate you turn to the left, and about twenty paces further on pass a second gate. On its cornices are carved in marble three different coats of arms .

To the right of this gate you mount twenty-seven steps, nearly all ruinous. Next you cross a large open space where are a few trees, and twenty-eight paces farther on come to a building composed of four great arcades, to the left of which is a fine square apartment, now unroofed; again you pass through another room and enter the cloister, a quadrangle of great beauty and dignity, and as fair and whole as if it were but just finished.

Between the two first columns at the entrance of the garden there is a fine marble cistern. It is in the form of a tomb, and carved around it is a wreath which a little child on either side holds up with its hands, one of the children is somewhat injured and the other is headless, and in other parts the tomb is mutilated. Round it are six lions' heads , two on each of the longer sides, and one on the narrower. At each of the corners is the head of a young ox all in low relief and of fair execution. The passage in which the stone stands is 112 feet long and 18 feet wide.

The vault on the garden side is upheld by eighteen pillars set in order in the middle, each of them is thirty-two palms thick, the capitals are Corinthian: the columns themselves of fair height. They make a kind of arcade, leaving wide spaces, through which you enter the garden between one column and the next. The ornaments of the arcades are all broken, but you can see their style. The inner side is an unbroken wall, and there are full sixteen feet between it and the columns.

A door on the left leads into a fine room, which looks newly built, with six large windows giving a pleasant view of the sea. It is ninety feet long by thirty-two wide, it has a fine arched vault supported by fourteen pillars, seven on each of the longer sides, and is closed at each end by an unbroken wall. There is a curious pulpit.

Two rooms beyond are in ruins.

Then one can mount thirty-six steps to a great passage full of wild plants, and seventeen more to reach the roof of the great hall, and again twenty to the top of the convent walls. One sees other rooms, mostly ruined. The view both towards the sea and landwards is very fine. I came down to the vestibule of the convent, and then descending on the left a flight of twentyone steps came to a room thirty-two feet broad and sixty-six feet long, with a well built vault upheld in the middle by two pillars, three times the height of a man.

One might fancy it all built five or six years ago. Beyond is another room of the same style, and outside a little court through which you pass to the door of the church. It has a fine entrance gate, with walls adorned with mosaic fatally damaged. I noticed also a large stone with letters of so strange a form that I could make out neither words nor sense. The church, excluding the choir, is about sixty feet long and forty-six feet broad. In the middle are four pillars of ordinary stone and of fair height. The walls are adorned with six or seven ancient paintings. Beyond the choir is another room."

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(*) In "A Voyage to the Levant" the XVIIth century traveller Cornelis de Bruyn also produced some of the earliest and most accurate images of the ancient Alexandrian (Egypt) monuments that existed in the year of his visit in 1680. Cornelis de Bruyn, circa 1652–1726/27, Dutch portrait painter and traveller, painted for some years in Italy, where he was known, in Rome, as Adonis. Bruyn is remembered chiefly for the records of his extensive travels in Egypt, Persia, India, and other countries, illustrated with his own designs.

Cornelis de Bruyn: "Voyages de Corneille Le Bruyn au Levant, C'est-à-dire, dans les Principaux endroits de l'Asie mineure, Dans les Isles de Chio, Rhodes, Chypre, &c. De même que dans les plus confidérables Villes d'Egypte, Syrie, & Terre Sainte; Enrichi d'un grand nombre de Figures en Taille-Douce ... le tout dessiné d'après Nature." The Hague, P. Gosse and J. Neaulme, 1732. 5 volumes. 4to. With 5 titles printed in red and black, full-page engraved portrait of De Bruyn, 85 engraved plates, of which 12 folding, 5 folding maps, engraved vignette, tailpieces. Contemporary half calf, spine richly gilt.

Cornelis de Bruijn (Cornelius Le Bruyn) made two extensive journeys to learn about and report on foreign lands and the people who lived in them. He was trained as an artist and made hundreds of drawings and paintings of the places, peoples, flora and fauna he encountered. These works were engraved, and the plates - including many folding plates - were published in the volumes in which he described his expeditions.  De Bruijn's work is valued for its accuracy, a feature derived from the fact that he actually visited the locations and peoples he described and painted, instead of relying on the sketches and descriptions of others. On his second expedition, he departed The Hague in 1701, visited Russia, Persia, and parts of the Dutch East Indies. He returned to The Hague in 1708.

(**) Also read: 'Excerpta Cypria' by Martoni, an Italian traveller to Cyprus in l394. Materials for a History of Cyprus, translated by C.D. Cobham, Cambridge, 1908, reprinted 1969.

Unfortunately the Dutchman De Bruyn is called a Danish (!) traveller on a site of the UN in Cyprus ("The shrine of Hala Sultan Tekke").

More about Cornelis de Bruyn: "(...) has always been the subject of  drawings and illustrations. However, in spite of its importance  as the focus of prayer and yearning, few of those who drew  Jerusalem had actually visited the city. Cornelis de Bruyn  was an exception; he drew Jerusalem exactly as he saw it in  1681. Nevertheless, for decades afterwards, cartographers and  artists gave free rein to their imaginations, depicting Jerusalem  as a Byzantine castle or a European fortress. (...)"

More about Cornelis de Bruyn: "(...) Der sich gegen Ende des Jahres 1678 in Istanbul befindliche holländische Reisende Cornelis De Bruyn (Corneille Le Bruyn), zeichnet in seinem Buch die Kopfbedeckungen der Frauen und beschreibt diese ausführlich: „Wenn Frauen ausser Haus gehen, so tragen sie neben dem ferace noch etwas anderes, dass wesentlich besser ins Auge sticht und „kirkie“ bezeichnet wird. (...)"

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