Detailed review by Praskipark
Praskipark(57)
Warsaw, Poland88%
The Gothic Bellapais Abbey (Abbey of Peace) stands in the heart of a sleepy village of the same name. Alongside the abbey stands the 'Tree of Idleness', made famous by Lawrence Durrell in his book Bitter Lemons. It is indeed a good place to sit and rest. Augustinian monks founded a monastery here in 1205. The abbey's pointed arches and ribbed vaulting in northern French Gothic style ought to have looked out of place in this Levantine landscape but, surprisingly, it seems to blend in well with the olive groves, cypresses and date palms. The Lusignan coat-of-arms above the entrance to the dining hall serves as a reminder of Bellapais's royal benefators: when Jerusalem fell, the Augustinians were expelled from the Holy Land and Hugo 1 donated extensive estates to the order. By the time the Ottomans arrived Bellapais was both structurally and morally disintegrating. A Venetian inspector who visited the site in the mid fifteenth century complained that the monks were not reading Mass, devoting themelves instead to their concubines and their children.
The Abbey cloisters are still, in my view, an exquisite sight especially in the early evening as the sun sets. The stonework changes to a rich honey color and the verdant conical shaped cypress trees gently sway in the evening breeze while the rich azul bed of sky, high above, looms over the tranquil abbey. A perfect picture at the end of a day.
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