St. Hilarion Castle
THE (RESTORED) GREAT HALL
(nr. 10 on ground plan)

(...) "My first walk up through the three levels of St. Hilarion was only a few months after the devastating fire of june 1995 and the entire mountainside was charcoal black. On the hillside above Kyrenia (Girne) there were no trees or shrubs and the smell of charred timber hung heavy and acrid in the still autumn air. There had been no rain to encourage nature in her wonderful process of regeneration, but, in sheltered nooks and crannies, some greenery had escaped the swift passage of the scorching flames. Lone pine trees had miraculously survived whilst everything else around them had fallen victim to the hungry tongue of Vulcan. The destruction was all around me and, slowly ascending the path from the lower ward, the sloping terrain was covered with singed bushes, frizzled trees and blackened rocks.

The entranceway into the Middle Ward seemed unharmed and, following the pathway to a dark tunnel, I came to the burnt out remains of the Great Hall. The banqueting chamber used by the Lusignan knights had been totally laid waste. In recent times it had been used as a refectory for the castle's visitors, serving cool drinks and afternoon teas on the north-facing balcony with a clear view towards the town of Kyrenia. The wooden rafters supporting a tiled roof had burnt through and crashed to the floor below. The floor in turn collapsed into the under-croft, smashing anything that had not succumbed to the flames. In this underfloor storeroom had been the fridges and freezers, the gas cylinders that fuelled the stoves, the bottles and cans of liquid refreshment. (...)

Source: Essential Cyprus, Issue 38, December 2004. Text by Lavinia Neville Smith, photograph: Hans Doeleman.