Bellapais Abbey

Bellapais Abbey, or "the Abbey of Beautiful Peace" (from French: Abbaye de la Belle Paix), is the ruin of a monastery built by Canons Regular in the 13th century on the northern side of the small village of Bellapais, now in Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus, about five kilometers from the town of Kyrenia. The ruin is at an altitude of 220m above sea level, and commands a long view down to Kyrenia and the Mediterranean sea.

The site is also a museum, which hosts a restaurant and a cafe. The Abbey's refectory now serves as a venue for concerts and lectures. In early summer it is also a venue for a local music festival.

Opening hours from June to mid-September are 9am to 7pm; the winter hours are 9am to 1 pm and 2pm to 4:45pmopening hours from mid-September to May are 9am to 5pm. There is an admission charge of 5YTL.

The abbey consists of a church and a cloister, with most of the monastic buildings surrounding the cloister. In Britain these would normally be built on the south side of the church to shelter the living quarters from the cold air from the north. At Bellapais, the monastic buildings are on the north, probably to be cooler, although occasionally the lay of the land dictated position.

The Abbey's main entrance is through a fortified gate on the south side, with a tower that is a later addition, and a forecourt. The gateway replaced an earlier drawbridge.

The church, which dates to the 13th century, itself borders the courtyard and is the best preserved part of the complex. The Italian murals on the facade may date to the 15th century. The church has a flat roof and a belfry, with only one surviving bell, above the entrance. The church consists of a nave with two side aisles, a choir and a sacristy. The surviving decorations include an intricately carved pulpit, the bishop's throne, and five chandeliers. It is possible that the graves of several Lusignan kings rest beneath the floor of the church.

The forecourt leads to the cloister, which has 18 arches. Under one of the arches on the north side there are two Roman sarcophagi that the canons once used as lavabos. The sarcophagi are one above the other, with the upper one being decorated, and the lower one plain. Water flowed from the upper to the lower, and then out a channel to the cloister garden.

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Wikipedia