Archaeological officer Elena Stylianou shows a sword thought to be from the period of the crusades, on January 22, 2021, on the site where a chapel of the Knights Templar was built at the Limassol medieval castle. — AFP picLIMASSOL, April 18 — Fables of the Knights Templar are legend, but deep beneath a castle on Cyprus — an island once owned by the Crusader brotherhood — lies a legacy historians say still resonates today.
“The architecture and the artefacts here reflect the broad history of Cyprus,” said Elena Stylianou, a government archaeologist, brandishing a long Crusader-era sword, rusted and chipped but still sharp.Richard, the first of so many British visitors to the sunny island, celebrated his wedding night downing sweet red wine — before spending his honeymoon laying waste to the countryside, burning, looting and adding Cyprus to his possessions.
“The most lasting consequence of the conquest of Richard is that although Cyprus would change hands several times, it still has a European orientation... and most Cypriots identify more with Europe than say they do with Asia and Africa,” Coureas said. He argues that for the most easterly member of the European Union, history is not just about dusty schoolbooks, but about how citizens see themselves today — part of Europe, far into the past.That view matters today. The island has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of Cyprus in response to an Athens-sponsored coup seeking to annex the island to Greece.
He noted that the 2011 Nato-backed overthrow of Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi was supported from a British airbase near Limassol. Myths tell of how the Templars hid their wealth — including, according to novels and films, the Holy Grail — when the order was damned as heretical in 1307 and the knights burned at the stake.
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