St Hilarion Castle

In the mountains behind Girne/Kyrenia there are the castles (or watch towers) of Kantara, Buffavento and St Hilarion. Their buildings are visible on the peaks and only accessible from behind. They were built to give warnings of the approach of Arab raiders who were attacking Cyrprus and the coast in Anatolia, Turkey, from the 7th to 10th C.

Better in LARGE to see the castle buildings. Notice the buildings on the lower right ridge.

St Hilarion started out as the hermit cell of a monk of that name who fled persecution in the Holy Land and lived and died in a cave on the mountain. By the 10th C a monastery had been built. The earliest documentation is from the time of Richard the Lion Heart and his campaign in 1191. In 1489, when the Venetians captured Cyprus it fell into neglect as they defended the island from Kyrenia, Famagusta and Nicosia.

To get there we drove above the houses, carob, olive and pomegranate trees into the conifers on the rocky slopes. We passed a Turkish army base with sentries who looked rather fiercely into the car, (sense of humour loss!) on past a little UN outpost to the base of the castle. Photographs were forbidden on the road continuing past the castle as this was an area of military shooting ranges. It was quite a feat climbing to the very top but the views were breathtaking of the north coast, the Mediterranean and the mountains in Turkey across the waters.

It is said Walt Disney was inspired by the lie of the castle and the mountain for his animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".