There are no architectural features about the ruins of Buffavento Castle* (sometimes spelled as Bufavento; also known as The Hundred Houses of Rigaina). The château was built merely for a watch tower and perhaps a prison, along with St. Hilarion and Kantara, as a part of the defensive chain against the Arab raids - the accommodation is of a limited extent. The square chamber on the summit may have been built as a chapel, or converted to that use subsequently. Like the other two it guarded an important pass through the mountains and it had signal connections with the other two strongholds.

It is impossible to identify this castle as it stands with any particular period. The Byzantine red brickwork visible in certain portions on the west side may be an accidental survival of a method of construction; or may be old material re-used. The entrance and most of the lower portion of the castle appears to be in the XIVth century style of masonry. The name of the castle means 'Defier of Winds'. However, some people think that 'buffeted' or 'blown' by the wind is a more appropriate explanation for its name.

When Richard the Lion Heart conquered Cyprus in 1191, the Byzantine despot king of the island Isaac Comnenus is said to have fled to Buffavento. In 1311, the Castle of Buffavento became the prison ('Château du Lion') of two Lusignan Princes, Chamerin, brother of the King and Constable of the Kingdom, and Balian de Ibelin, Prince of Galilee, who were regarded as the supporters of the usurping Prince of Tyre, and as traitors to the King Henry II.

Nearly a century later another brace of prisoners were confined in Buffavento: Perotto and Glimot de Montolif, accused of conspiring to secure the Crown of Cyprus for Valentina Visconti, widow of Peter II, in opposition to the popular election of King James I as King in 1385. Perotto endeavoured to escape from the fortress by jumping from a window balcony into a tree, but injured his legs in so doing and was easily captured and returned to his prison, where both he and his brother were shortly after decapitated, their heads being sent to the King who was building his new castle of La Cava near Nicosia.

In 1683, Cornelis de Bruyn (a Dutchman from the Hague) visited Buffavento and describes how he had to rest and take breath a dozen times. "The ascent is as difficult and dangerous as I have ever made. The greater part of the time we had to climb with our hands as well as our feet, and whichever way we turned our gaze we saw only what made our hair stand on end. We took an hour and a half to reach the top". It is curious to find a XVIIth century Dutchman undertaking such a piece of mountaineering; even at the present day the trip to Buffavento is a very considerable exertion to most people.

In 1816, the tourist Ali Bey (click picture , he was in reality a Spaniard; his name in North Cyprus now remembered as the name of a holiday village...) climbed to the topmost chamber, and in the spirit of all such visitors, then as now, picked out the topmost stone of the building to carry off as a trophy. A taste for such stupid vandalism is unfortunately still prevalent in Cyprus, and the ruins are much disfigured with the names of foolish nobodies and memento thieves.

The castle figured in medieval times until the Venetians, in l490, found it a menace to occupy, for, if Kyrenia became besieged, the place would be cut of completely. So, along with the castles of St. Hilarion and Kantara, it was dismantled and became a glorious picturesque ruin, the process accelerated by the occasional earthquakes.

* See also Camille Enlart "L'Art Gothique, etc., en Chypre."

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