Last Sunday, a few of the other Fulbright students, Bahar (a Turkish Cypriot who studied architecture in the US on a Fulbright Grant), and I went to St. Hilarion castle. The mountaintop fortification is located at the supposed site of where Saint Hilarion sought asceticism and where a 10th century Byzantine monastery and walls were constructed in his honor. The castle was further developed by the Lusignan's (a Frankish ruling class who owned Cyprus from 1192 to 1474) in the 13th century as a stronghold on the northern coast of Cyprus. It was also occupied by the Turkish military during the war of 1974.
According to my Lonely Planet guidebook, this castle inspired Walt Disney's Snow White. As I walked the castle from one room to the next, I felt as though I was on an adventure and could imagine how magical it must have been before it feel to ruin.
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