Castle of Lemesos, a medieval museum

The Castle of Lemesos (Limassol) is also the Medieval Museum of Cyprus. It is located in the centre of the historic old city of Limassol.

The castle is a rectangular three-story structure with two-metre-thick walls. From the ground floor, visitors descend to the vault and ascend once to the museum and twice to the top floor with views of the city.

Its original purpose was to protect the port city, dating back to the Ottoman period (1590), although there are references dating the castle to 1228. It was destroyed in 1373 and repairs were undertaken around 1400. In 1413 the castle was used to defend the city from the Egyptian Mamelukes, but it was badly damaged in the 1425 raids and subsequent earthquakes. Another earthquake damaged the castle in 1491.

About five years before the Ottoman invasion in 1570 the castle was completely destroyed to prevent it being taken over by the invaders. The remains of the castle were used to rebuild a new castle in 1590. At that time the castle was also used as a prison until about 1950.

The Department of Antiquities took ownership of the castle in 1950 and used it as the Lemesos District Archaeological Museum. From 1963-1974 it was used as a guard post for the National Guard. In 1975 the archaelogical collections were moved to the present-day District Archaelogical Museum. It has housed the Cyprus Medieval Museum since 1987.

Artefacts are displayed in cases on the second floor. These include pottery, plates, lamps, fragments of marble and stone, tombstones, a skeleton, vases and urns, and a replica of a medieval suit of armour.

The skeleton was found during the excavation of the moat of the Podocataro bastion in the Venetian walls of Nicosia. The head, arms, and feet were missing. A preliminary examination of the skeleton confirmed that it was a young person, possibly a soldier, aged between 20-30, who met a violent death.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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