A History Lesson in Limassol

It's the Mediterranean Sea!

After Kendra, Chelsey and I went on a walk Friday night along the Mediterranean beach (and played on the swings for a little while), I awoke Saturday morning to a sunny day and free breakfast in the hotel lobby.  I'm always an advocate of free breakfast and free coffee makes it even better!

The only specific thing on my agenda for the day was to visit the Medieval Castle and Museum in Limassol.   Seeing as how America doesn't have any real castles (unless you count the Biltmore Estate, which I do...), I jump at the chance to see them.  The main reason that this particular castle caught my attention is because it is allegedly the location where King Richard the Lionhearted married Berengaria of Navarre.

Welcome to my castle!

To my understanding, this whole situation was actually rather scandalous.  Richard only spent about six months in England because he preferred to live in France.  But this didn't stop him from using almost all of England's treasury to fund The Crusades.  Naturally, this didn't sit well with his subjects in England.

Furthermore, Richard was betrothed to Alys, a daughter of Louis VII of France.  This was his second betrothal, after the first fell through, and was originally prevented by Louis himself before consenting to the betrothal through a truce.  Richard, however, became close to Berengaria during a tournament held in Navarre and decided to take her with him on a leg of the crusade.

Super Old Chain mail and Weapons
(that age is approximate, not exact)

When their ship wrecked on the shores of Cyprus, many of the survivors were taken captive.  Richard demanded the release of the prisoners and, when his demands were refused, he decided to take the city of Limassol (Lemesos, in the English translation).  When he realized that the Cypriots disliked their current oppressor and would pledge their loyalty to him, Richard took control of the whole island.

On May 12, 1191 Richard and Berengaria were wed in Limassol (Lemesos).  Some historians say they were wed in the Chapel of St. George, others say in the castle that stands in Limassol today.  Richard held a double coronation in Limassol, crowning himself King of Cyprus and crowning Berengaria Queen of England and Cyprus simultaneously.  An interesting fact about Richard is that he didn't speak English.  Berengaria is also the only Queen of England to not step foot on English soil until after Richard's death, when she was no longer regent.

Stairs that I wasn't allowed to
climb :(

My little history lesson may have put everyone to sleep.  I'm sorry.  But Richard was a Plantagenet monarch which, as some of you may know, is part of my most recent British history obsession: the war of the roses between the Yorks and Plantagenets (even though Richard ruled quite some time before the war of the roses took place).

Image of an old painting
from a church in Cyprus

After we toured the castle/museum, we wandered around the streets of Limassol. We found a little shop that seemed to be going out of business and had everything at least 50% off and it is the first place I found pottery made in Cyprus.  I read, prior to coming to this country, that Cyprus had a lot of local potters but as of this point I had not found any pottery for sale.  Sure, there are Grecian urns in all of the tourist shops I've seen, but pottery actually made in Cyprus and not made en masse for tourist revenue?  This was the first I'd seen and it made me really excited.  According to the store owner, one of the potters is even from Lefkosia (which is also Nicosia, the area I'm staying in), so I want to see if I can track down his pottery.

You know, just sitting by the
Mediterranean. It's really bright here!

For dinner, Dr. Legg invited several of us to a restaurant he found called Little Plates.  The prices on the menu seemed more than reasonable at 6 - 12 euros a dish.  So Kendra, Chelsey, Jonathan and I accompanied Dr. Legg.

Saturday night's dinner is worthy of a blog unto itself, so stay tuned!!