Hugh died at Tyre and his body was brought over to Cyprus and buried within the church.
Towards the end of the Venetian are the monastery had sadly declined and the Lieutenant-Governor was scandalized to find that the monks had taken wives-indeed some did not even restrict themselves to one and that the only motivates they receive were their own children.

The gateway to the abbey is near the southwest corner of the site. It has a central archway, flanked by two wicker gates. Fortifications were built over the gateway, probably in the l4th century, including a large tower and a drawbridge, but nothing survives of these today. The church is without doubt the monist ancient part of the building, and is in a superb state of preservation. It consists of a square of a square ended Chancel, a crossing with transepts and nave of two bays with aisles and is surmounted by a large belfry. The style of erection seems to be early thirteenth century and the earliest part of the church is the choir and the windows of the nave. In the middle of the thirteenth century the pillars, vaults of the nave, and porch were added. No monuments remain, though many famous persons, including King Hugh III, were buried in the church.  

 Bellapais Abbey is a major tourist attraction not only because of its convenient distance, 5 km from Girne (Kyrenia), but also it is, as the name implies, 'bellepais or beautiful peace." An ideal place for a summer afternoon; situated in a secluded nook at the foothills of the Girne mountain range. The Abbey is well looked after by the custodian who lives in the village and it is u nder the control of the Department of Antiquities.

  The location of both the Abbey and village of Bellapais is close to a very copious mountain spring which supplics water not only to the village but also to  many miles of orange and lemon trees, extending all the  way down the valley to Ozanköy (Kazafani).

The monks settled herc more than 700 years ago and chose the site because of the abundant water supply, for one must remember that all monasteries In the Middle Ages were self.contained economic units and entirely dependent on the efficiency of the monastic farm for survival. Just before reaching the village a fine view of the abbey can be obtained from the main road and this is shown in fig.l. It is situated on a natural terrace from which there are magnificent views of  mountain and sea.

Fortified gateway to Bellapais Abbey

Is The Abbey a castle? Have a look at the gateway as shown in fig.2 and there is no doubt that the Abbey at one time w as a fortified place. The gateway is similar to that of a mediaeval castle with portcullis and machicolated (overhanging) embattlements. What was there to defend? T'he monks or the abbot? No, they were expendable. It was treasure that they wanted to protect. The gold and silver were kept in vault-like cupboards around the cloisters. Is there any treasure left for us? Not a bit, for it was looted by the Venetians just before they surrendered the castle town of Girne to the Turks in 1571. It is mentioned in some ancient chronicles that wagon loads of the loot went down to the harbour of Girne in the 16th century.

One must remember that an architect is an artist, whereas a builder is merely a workman carrying out another person's ideas. It is quite plausible to suggest that the Gothic arch originated by the fortuitous observation of intersecting arches as explained in fig.5. Roman architects were aware of this, but never made use of it, as they preferred the majesty of "the triumphal" arch of semicircular shape.  The writer believes that the origin lies in basilica construction. It is easy to have a square building with Roman arches supporting the roof, as in  fig.6 ,but when you come to the rectangular shaped building the arch along the short wall must be made higher and this can only be done effectively by, a pointed arch, raising A to B in fig. 7.

There is archeological evidence that the first pointed arch has been found in some ruined buildings near Persepolis dating about 500 a.d In late Roman times  (Byzantine)  the  Churches were of the basilica type and hundred of years later the Christians developed the pointed arch as a means of building very tall churches, in fact, cathedrals. They wanted height to give the impression of solemnity. to reach up and up to the sky,  i.e. heaven above. The Moslem religion was not concerned with these Christian beliefs and they developed the dome and minaret.

Bellapais Abbey well displays the use of the Gothic areh in achieving height; the best example is to be seen on the east wall of the Abbey as shown in fig.8, Here it will be noticed how small the windows are. If you do have large stained glass windows, then the outer walls must be strengthened by massive stone buttresses, and if it is to be a cathetral, then a whole series of flying' buttresses must be built along the exterior walls. However, Christians preferred their churches ana cathedrals to be lit with 'dim religious light" to inspire reverence, the fear of God springing from a natural fear of the dark.

All visitors are greatly impressed by the beauty of the magnificent Gothic arches springing up from the luxuriant local green of the orange and lemon groves. To Laurence Durrell, who lived here for some years. Bellapais w as a heaven of  rest a paradise of peace. He must have stared at the cloisters for so long that, to him the bacKground curtain of mountains become fretted with Gothic arches. Remember that the greenery of this paradise is related to the Moslem idea of such a place, for the relief from the desert is Green, the Moslem colour.

The Church and the Cloisters

   The church was founded by refugee monks from Palestine in 1206 a.d. and is the oldest building in the  Abbey. This Gothic edifice was a Latin church for more than 300 years, its very name Bellapais is Latin, but  with the arrival of the Turks in 1571 it was handed  over to the Greek Orthodox church simply because the  Turks would have no dealings with the Latins after their adventures in the Crusades.

The whole scene holds together with the tall pointed spires of the dark green cypress trees. This  view is shown in fig.11, but we must remind our readers  that to catch these shafts of sunlight lighting up the  stone work, and casting long shadows on the mountain  peaks, is only to be had on a late summer evening. In any season always visit the abbey in the late afternoon,  and while away the remaining time in the Tree of  Idleness. 

In 1940 four cypress trees were planted in the  cloister lawn and now they are beginning to rise above  the entire abbey. The gardens outside are ablaze with all manner of brilliant flowers, a garden paradise first started by a famous Greek gardener by the name Kostas Kollis, whose green fingers made both him and the abbey famous among tourists. Needless to say, the present custodian has striven admirably to keep up this tradition of flowers among the stones. There are notices in Turkish and English requesting visitors not to pick the flowers.

 The writer has made many paintings of this abbey for the last 4 years and recently he has discovered what must be the finest view of the abbey. It is taken from 

The Refectory

This was the dining hall used by the monks for over 300 years and the entrance is by way of   the cloisters. On the marble lintel above the door can be seen the sculptured coats of arms of the Lusignan family,  the knights of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus. The view of the interior is shown in fig.12 and the ribvaulted roof with its six bays is in an excellent state of preservation. Most historians regard this dining hall  as the finest example of Gothic architectu re in the Middle East More is the pity that soldiers during the British occupation of Cyprus used the place for a miniature rifle range and the bullet marks can be seen all along the eastern wall. What an outcry there would be, if this were done today?  

Traces of benches around the walls indicate where the monks sat for meals and a higher bench along one  wall must have been the high table for the big ''V.I.P 's  of the Abbey, the Abbot and his chief officials. In  the north wall a stairway leads to a ''hanging wall pulpit" and this is shown in fig.13.

 The figures have been put in because the writer often sees fun-loving tourists deliver an oration to friend  below. Closeby in the pulpit is a stone cupboard where  scripture books were kept for here, during meal hours,  one of the monks recited prayers to those below. Almost the only lighting is from the rose window on the east wall, so the dimly lit hall probably kept down the number of complaints about the meals. The kitchens were outside on the western side but only the foundations remain. 

THE CHAPTER HOUSE

 From the eastern side of the cloisters a door leads  to the chapter house where all that remains are the  large marble pillar w hich supported a vaulted roof and  around the walls are stone benches. Here, the abbot and his near-hierarchy held meetings to plan the duties for the day and do the administration of the abbey.  Inserting to note are the stone corbels, i.e. the stone  projections which carried the ribs for the vaults, which are carved with curious sculptured faces, some even  comical. (See fig.20)

 THE CRYPT

Close to the kitchen, stone steps lead below to the crypt which is a massive vaulted undercroft, not unlike the pillars of early Norman churches in England (fig.14).  Here, large earthen ware jars containing olive oil, wine and grain were stored. It is qu ite a spacious area where much food could be stored in case of island food shortages caused by drought, plagues of  locusts or wars in the countryside. The Abbey had to be self-sufficient  and no external currency deals went on!

THE DORMITORIES

 On the south side of the cloisters a stone staircase leads to the dormitories where a series of rooms around the quadrangle were the bedrooms for the monks, perhaps about 20. In each room is a small stone cupboard where each one could keep his personal belongings. Looking at fig.15, these rooms were nothing more than cubicles, so it must have been a hard life without central heating or electric blankets. What a blessing it would have been for the monks to have a discotheque and to be roused in the morning by the Beatles' refrain, 'IT'S BEEN A HARD DAY'S NIGHT'T.

THE ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS 

This stone coffin now stands outside the cloisters and is a very conspicuous object in white marble. From the style of sculpture and ornament it is dated about 200 a.d. which indicates that, long before the Abbey was built, this was a Roman settlement here of some sort. To be buried in such an exquisite coffin of  that sort one must have been one of the Roman nobles and one who probably had a magnificent villa built for himself in Bellapais in contrast to his "business' in Roman Girne. The white marble did not come from the marble quarries on the mountain slopes behind Bellapais, for that rock cannot be carved and sculptured, Little did these ancient Romans foresee that, hundreds of years later, the monks would use that coffin as a washing basin. Where were the monks' ablutions'? Probably close to the kitchens but the sarcophagus has been moved to its present position.

 ROMAN COLUMN IN THE CHAPTTER HOUSE

This marble column once supported the roof vaults for the Chapter House and is similar to the four marble  columns to be seen in the Byzantine church within Girne castle (inside the Venetian tower, close to the entrance).  From the sculpture, in the Corinthian sytle, it would be late Roman, i.e. Byzantine, It is quite likely that before the monastery times there was a Byzantine basilica here.

ROMAN MASON'S MARKS

 Gazing round the walls of the Abbey it is easy to see that many of the large stone blocks must have come from some former buildings, Byzantine or Roman. The Romans had no electric drills and it must have taken a whole day's work to carve out just one stone block and, to make sure that the mason got money for his job, he would inscribe his initials or trade mark on the stone. This common practice can be seen in many Roman ruins in Italy,, Turkey and the Middle East. Best examples are to be seen in the w alls of the Undercroft fig. 18.

COATS OF ARMS

 Heraldry and the wearing of badges was important in the days of old for the simple reason that when you had your suit of armour on, who was to know which side you were on? On the lintel above the door to the Refectory can be seen 3 coats of arms in stone, the knights of Jerusalem, of the Lusignan family and the socalled king of Cyprus. The figure crossed were cornmonly used. The Venetian Lion was with wings and is frequ ently seen around ancient buildings of Magosa  (Famagusta). In the sketch fig.l9 notice the zigzag carving around the arch, very common in the Norman churches of England and said by some to have been the origin of the sergeant' s stripes.

CARVED CORBELS

 A corbel is an architectural term of a projection of stone or wood used to support the weight of the stone arches. Here are three sketches of selected corbels taken from the walls in the cloisters fig,20 It was common practice to carve these corbels in the shape of human or animal heads. Two are apparently caricatures of some local person, while the middle one is probably a ram's head. Stone masons in building the monastery would take the opportunity to portray some character in stone to give grotesque appearance. If the stone mason at the time had a difficult fellow worker or there was a curious monk or abbot, then his features were sculptured in the stone corbel. These stone masonls jokes can be often detected in ancient monasteries and churches.

TREASURY CUPBOARD 

 The Treasury is between the church and the cloisters and is the place where gold and silver articles were stored. The crusader knights in the course of their "adventure’ into Palestine acquired such wealth and late in life they bequeathed some to the church in return for prayers being said for them, You can see from the skecth, fig, 22 that this is a built.in cupboard and it is curious to realise that it is only in the last  30 years that modern builders revived this mediaeval idea of the built-in cupboard. When the writer was a boy he remembers these huge cumbersome Victorian wardrobes, that can still be seen in old houses in Cyprus. Close examination of the remains of the hinges may indicate the wrenching done by those Genoese looters in 1500 a.d.

 THE END OF THE ABBEY

The Chronicles of Middle Ages contain wearisome and boring accounts of the numerous quarrels between the bishops of' both Latin and Orthodox churches, and so it is easy to understand how the monastery declined. Both Genoese and Venetian invaders looted the Abbey while the latter in 1500 a.d. reported they found the monks living in a "depraved" manner, many with several wives. In 1571 the Turks were glad to hand the Abbey over to the Greek Orthodox church.

 PLAN OF THE BELLAPAİS ABBEY

The plan, fig.23 shows that the outstanding physical feature of the entire Abbey is that it was built on a natural high terrace, the scarp of which faces north to the sea ending with a 30-metre high cliff. The powerful and copious springs of Bellapais have been following for hundreds of thousands of years, during  which the lime deposit has built up this terrace. This redeposited lime stone is known as tufa. Who came here first? The Romans were well known  for their love of running water for their fountains, public baths, sanitation and wash basins. Rich Roman citizens always liked to live in some country spot where water flowed all the year round. The answer for them was Bellapais. So the first settlement was Roman followed in Byzatine times by a small church.