Travel Guide Kazafani – Ozanköy

Dominated by Bellapaïs Abbey, this village boasts a wide stretch of coastline. But it's mostly lined with cliffs. The only beach is occupied by the Port Cratos hotel complex: 400 rooms, swimming pools, casino, discotheque on an artificial islet... And the agricultural plain is now covered with villas and housing estates. In fact, it's the village itself that's worth a visit, with its narrow streets, mosque, church and "crusaders' path" leading to Bellapaïs. Inhabited since Neolithic times, the site took on the Latin name Casa Pifani ("village of Saint Epiphane") under the Lusignans. It was then a powerful seigneury populated by Latins and Maronites. After the Ottoman conquest, Orthodox inhabitants driven out of Kyrenia settled here. Some Catholics converted to Islam to escape the taxes imposed on Christians. Even today, some Turkish Cypriots are descendants of old French and Lebanese families. Since 1974, Kazafani has been called Ozanköy ("poet's village"), in homage to the local Turkish Cypriot poet Osman Türkay (1927-2001).