The story of Kantara Castle

In 1373, when the Genoese invaded Cyprus and imprisoned the local nobles, Prince John of Antioch escaped from Famagusta disguised as his own cook's valet. He fled up to this castle, the Genoese failed to take it, and from here he organised the counter-offensive that drove them out. Kantara stands at 550 to 600 metres, with Buffavento and Saint Hilarion farther west, and signals were passed between the three castles.

Its name comes from the Cypriot Arabic word kandak, meaning stone bridge. Richard the Lionheart took it in 1191. In 1229 the Ibelins besieged it with trebuchets, and the garrison surrendered a year later, when its commander was killed by a crossbow bolt. With no local water, rain was collected from flat roofs into the cisterns.

At the very top stand the ruins of the so-called Queen's Chamber. In 1519 Italian engineers declared the castle obsolete; the last garrison left in 1525, and it was dismantled in 1560.