St. Hilarion Castle understand · St. Hilarion Castle tourist information
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St. Hilarion Castle tourist information
St. Hilarion Castle tourist information
The best preserved of North Cyprus' three castles, this fairytale castle (said by some to have inspired the one in Disneyland) is perched on a steep hilltop with commanding views over Kyrenia and the coast.
The castle is named not after St. Hilarion the Great, the founder of monasticism in Palestine who died near Paphos about A.D. 371, but after a later saint, of whom little is known. He is counted among the three hundred saints who according to local tradition, sought refuge in Cyprus when the Arabs overran the Holy Land. His relics were preserved in the castle and "kept right worshipfully" according to an English visitor in the 14th century. It may be presumed that he retired to this hill-top to live the life of a hermit and that as the hermitage of St. Neophytos near Paphos, a monastery was established to shelter those who should follow his example, as well pilgrims to his tomb. The first certain reference to the castle dates from 1191, when Richard the Lionheart successfully besieged it after conquering Kyrenia.
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St. Hilarion Castle Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.