Travel Guide Bellapaïs – Beylerbeyi

"The road rose slowly by many detours through the raw light of a fine spring morning, towards the solemn carcass of the abbey, like a great ship that had come mysteriously to run aground there in the greenery." This is how British writer Lawrence Durrell described his arrival at Cyprus' most romantic monument in Sour Lemons, 1957. Overlooking Kyrenia, 200 m above sea level, the famous 13th-century French abbey that gives its name to the village of Bellapaïs owes its fame to its beautiful Gothic ruins, its rich history, its sublime natural setting and the foreign travellers who praised its charms. Alas, Durrell's description is no longer entirely up to date. The inhabitants, once all Greek Cypriots, were expelled after 1974 and replaced by Turkish Cypriot refugees from the Larnaca region and settlers from Turkey. The village took the Turkish name Beylerbeyi. Quite close phonetically to "Bellapaïs", it comes from the Beylerbeyi palace in Istanbul, which served as a summer residence for sultans and their guests. As for the peace and quiet that the writer so appreciated here, you'll have to wait until the evening, when the groups of tourists leave, to find it again.