Metravel city quest
City Limassol: free walking route “quest: the city of a royal wedding” along the sights. 11 points. Approximately 2 h 30 min. Quests and legends - straight
May 1191. A storm scatters the Third Crusade's fleet across the Mediterranean, and the ship carrying Berengaria of Navarre, the English king's bride, is driven ashore near Limassol. Unfortunately for her, Cyprus is ruled by Isaac Komnenos, a self-proclaimed emperor so quarrelsome that he has managed to fall out with all his neighbours at once. Isaac decides that a ship stranded by his shore with a princess aboard is an excellent prize.
He has badly miscalculated. The princess's bridegroom is Richard I Plantagenet, King of England, the man all Europe calls the Lionheart. Richard arrives with his fleet, lands near Limassol, defeats Isaac and takes the whole island in a few weeks. On 12 May 1191, right here in Limassol, he marries Berengaria, and she is crowned that same day. It was the only time in history that a Queen of England was crowned outside England. Most remarkably, Berengaria is traditionally called the only English queen never to have set foot on English soil.
Almost in passing, this wedding decided an entire island's fate. Sailing for the Holy Land, Richard sold Cyprus to the Templars. The island then passed to Guy de Lusignan, and the Frankish Lusignan dynasty ruled Cyprus for three hundred years. It all grew from one storm and one wedding.
Today you will walk right through the city of that wedding: from the marina where yachts rock today and crusader galleys once lay, past the old fishing harbour to the castle that remembers that May day, then via an optional coffee break into the Turkish quarter, to a minaret and a white cathedral, finishing beside the sea on the sculpture-lined promenade.
What to do: 1) Read the story and task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map and walk up to it. 3) Look around and answer the question.
The walking route is about three kilometres, almost entirely along the sea and through the old town's lanes. We begin beside the water at Limassol Marina. Onwards!
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
We will begin on the coast, where everything in this story began. Somewhere off these shores in May 1191, Richard's fleet dropped anchor: tens of galleys, knights, horses and siege engines.
From the marina, walk east along the waterfront. Within a few minutes, berths filled with million-euro yachts give way to a simpler, older harbour.
By the old harbour stands Porto Bello, a building combining the city's business life with cultural events. A large sculpture rises above its roof, visible from the street and the port.
Now leave the sea behind and walk inland from the harbour towards the castle. Its stone silhouette is visible from the port itself.
Here is the heart of our whole story. Low and stern, with two-metre walls, Limassol Castle looks nothing like a fairy-tale castle on a postcard.
Beside Kebir Mosque is ALICE Coffee & Desserts, a café serving desserts and ice cream. Its tables stand by an old-town lane, on the way to the next stop.
From the castle, head north into the quarter. After a couple of hundred metres, a slender minaret appears above the roofs, alongside palm trees almost as tall.
From the mosque, walk a couple of blocks northeast towards Agiou Andreou Street. Above the low roofs of the old town rises a sandy-white, imposing building, unlike anything you have seen so far: Agia Napa Cathedral.
From the cathedral, walk down to the sea through the old town's streets. On Molos, stone façades give way to an open horizon, and the city's story continues in the open air.
Continuing east along the sea, you will encounter a work by Ahmed El-Stoahy. Upright human silhouettes rise from a shared base beside the walking path.
Further along the promenade stands Maria Kyprianou's “Birth”. On a low, broad plinth, the artist has gathered many similar large forms, and the familiar urban scale suddenly becomes almost fairy-tale-like.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.