Outside the city of Lemesos, Kolossi Castle, a Crusader fortress of the Knights of St. John that was constructed in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 15th, towers over a landscape of vineyards. It is accessible by a short drawbridge that was originally defended by a parapet high above, through which defenders would pour molten lead or boiling oil on the heads of unwanted visitors. A spiral staircase leads up to the roof and the restored battlements.
The castle is a fine example of military architecture and served as the Grand Commandery of the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. In the 14th Century it came under the domain of the Knights Templar, and legend has it that Richard the Lionheart housed his new bride, Berengaria, here after their marriage in Limassol.
We pass the castle regularly as we live in a nearby village, but hadn’t thought of placing a cache here until we discovered Alecos_cy’s Templar geocoin. He asked that the coin should follow the footsteps of the Crusades and Pilgrims so where better for it to travel to next than here? It’s certainly the first time (to our knowledge) that a cache has been set on Cyprus purely for the positioning of a geocoin!