Gastria Castle

History

Gastria Castle sat on the north side of Famagusta Bay, about three kilometers southwest of Gastria village. After Richard the Lionheart took Cyprus in 1191, he sold it to the Knights Templar, who lost control after a revolt in Nicosia, and then it went to Guy of Lusignan. The castle first appears in records in 1210, when the regent Walter of Montbéliard hid there with Templar allies after refusing to explain his handling of the royal treasury to the new king, Hugh I. He then fled to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Peace ended when Hugh died in 1218. A fight over who would be regent broke out between the House of Ibelin and local backers of Emperor Frederick II, against the House of Lusignan. Frederick’s arrival in Limassol in 1228 turned this into open war. In 1229, John of Ibelin came back to Cyprus through Gastria’s port.

In 1232, after losing the Battle of Agridi, Frederick’s few remaining supporters asked to hide in Gastria, but the Templars refused, and anyone hiding in the ditch was caught. The Lusignans kept ruling, with only the occasional palace coup. In 1279, Hugh III tore down the castle and kicked out the Templars because they had backed Charles I of Naples. In 1308, the castle was given to the Knights Hospitaller.

In 1310, Henry II of Jerusalem passed through Gastria on his way to exile in Armenia. After that, the castle is never mentioned again.

Architecture

Gastria was a small rectangular fort at the end of a long narrow ridge, separated from it by a rock-cut ditch 7.9–4.5 m wide and 2–2.6 m deep, once crossed by a drawbridge or wooden bridge. True to small Templar fortresses, it had no towers. A circular cistern occupied the center. To the east, a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea and fort shows signs of occupation, once separated from the fort by a now-filled channel. North of the fort and outcrop, a watercourse served as a harbor.