If you look at any castle from the outside, it is obvious that it is a “fortified house” designed to protect its inhabitants from outside threats. But … no fortified house can protect its inhabitants from themselves, from their stupidity, laziness, greed, deceit, desire to possess what does not belong to you or what you are not worthy of. Almost in every ancient castle, black deeds were going on, another thing is that not all of them became public property. However, there is one castle, the crime within the walls of which gained worldwide fame thanks to the talented pen of William Shakespeare.
Since the "Othello castle" is inscribed in the system of fortifications of the entire city of Famagusta, it is not very striking. The wall separating the city from the port seems to be much more significant, especially when you climb it up the stairs without railings. For some reason, the fences on it for the safety of tourists were never made, and it is not easy for two streams of people to disperse on it. But the "castle" itself (in fact, it is a fort) can be recognized by this marble slab above the entrance.
This is Othello Castle (Othello Tower) - a fortification in the city of Famagusta in the territory of northern Cyprus, which today belongs to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Here, as nowhere else, the real story is intertwined with the fictional history, but the castle itself stood as it stands, and you can visit it, stand on the tower and … as far as possible, imagine those tragic events that took place within its walls.
An old map of the fortifications of Famagusta. The fort is marked with a flag on it.
And this is how the "Desdemona Tower" (then it was called so) looked in 1900 on a tourist postcard. Then such postcards were also issued and were very popular among the British who came to rest in Cyprus.
View from the tower of the fort to the city wall in 1900. Judging by the number of battlements on the wall, there could be just a lot of cannons there.
But before talking about the castle, it makes sense to remember both the great William Shakespeare and his ageless creations. I must say that he borrowed plots for them literally from everywhere: he took them from old sagas and chronicles, other people's short stories and uncomplicated sailor stories. But Shakespeare's genius was such that he found all this a new embodiment and sound. Here is the story about the Moor Othello "from the same opera." Moors in medieval Western Europe were called Muslims of Spain and also parts of North Africa - Berbers and Arabs who lived there after the end of the Arab conquests. The Moors were deservedly considered brave sailors and warriors. There is a legend that at the beginning of the 16th century there lived an Italian named Maurizio Othello, who commanded the Venetian troops in Cyprus from 1505 to 1508. And so, under extremely suspicious circumstances, he lost his wife there. According to another version, it was the governor of Cyprus, Lieutenant Cristoforo Moro, who ruled the island in the same years, that is, 65 years before the capture of the island by the Turks. That is, Shakespeare's creation is based on a very specific historical fact, around which he has already composed everything he wanted. And although how it really happened, no one knows for sure, the Cypriots are very proud that young Desdemona was strangled on their island, and the Othello castle in Famagusta must be shown to all tourists who come there.
This is what he is - a theatrical Moor: "You prayed to Desdemona before going to sleep ?!"
Desdemona's house in Venice. From here, poor thing, she went to Cyprus with her Moor husband. By the way, the idea of this Shakespearean drama is relevant to this day - it is hardly worth, for example, our girls entrust their fate to people with a different mentality and temperament.
As for the plot of the drama, it is "truly Shakespearean" in the abundance of treachery and secrets, which, however, is not surprising at the time of "cloak and dagger." The famous military leader Moor Othello is married to Brabantio's daughter Desdemona, who fell in love with him "for torment", while he fell in love with her "for compassion for them." But his assistant Iago and the young nobleman Rodrigo, who is also in love with Desdemona, plot against him. To do this, they want to slander Desdemona, pour the poison of jealousy into his ears and even put it in her closet Cassio's handkerchief, a gift from Othello. Proof of treason is available, and the distraught Othello gives Iago the order to kill Cassio. But the cunning Iago kills, first of all, the naive Rodrigo and adjusts everything in such a way that he gets out of the water.
A beautiful lion over the entrance to the castle, to be sure!
It looks like the entrance to the castle, or rather the fort. By the way, its inspection is paid. You can pay both in local Turkish lira and in euros.
There is not much to photograph there, and there are very few beautiful angles. Therefore, once again we shoot the entrance - close-up.
By the way, there are a lot of Lviv here in Famagusta. And before, I suppose, there were even more.
Well, Othello comes to his wife's bedroom and, instead of finding out everything thoroughly, begins to blame her, poor thing, he does not listen to any arguments of reason and strangles Desdemona (although in some translations into Russian, for example, in Pasternak's translation, he first strangles, and then also stabs him with a dagger, which apparently seemed to Pasternak quite appropriate).
And this is how he killed her, a jealous sinister … Painting by Alexander Colin (1798 - 1875).
But then the guards appear, Iago, Iago's wife, Cassio and others, see the dying Desdemona. And Iago's wife exposes her husband's treachery, for which he immediately kills her. Othello stabs himself out of grief, and the guards take the treacherous Iago away, and one must assume that he will be executed too!
I must say that in Cyprus there are so many beautiful structures almost everywhere that you can play plays literally everywhere, but at least at this fountain …
Literally opposite the entrance to the castle, the medieval ruins of St. George's Cathedral rise. Even what's left of it is impressive, isn't it? But there used to be beautiful stained-glass windows here. Here, as they say, there was simply nothing to attach a minaret to, otherwise the Turks would have built it here too! By the way, just behind it you can see the city wall and excavators, with the help of which repair work was carried out at the castle.
And so they did with the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in the center of the Old City. Therefore, it is best to shoot it from behind, where you can see all the delights of the then Gothic architecture. And palm trees. The cathedral and palm trees look very beautiful! Moreover, for some reason, few people take pictures of it from this angle. But it is better not to look at the minaret on the right at all. Well, such a variety of styles … and nothing, it is considered quite normal.
A. S. Pushkin wrote on this occasion that Othello's tragedy is that he is too trusting, and one should not trust everyone so much. People - they are different!
As for the Othello castle itself, it is located in the northeastern (old) part of the city of Famagusta, and is closely adjacent to the high fortress wall, which still today surrounds the cargo port. Tourist buses make a right turn here, as they take tourists to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, turned into a mosque by the Turks, but you can also approach the castle and see it, only you will need to walk along the fortress wall in the opposite direction.
The walls and towers of the Famagusta castle.
The basis of the buildings of the castle is Gothic.
Well, the history of this fortification began at the beginning of the XIII century, when the king of Cyprus Henry I de Lusignan (1218 - 1253) ordered to build a tower here to protect the entrance to the port of Famagusta. Already in 1310, the castle in a typical Gothic style was completely built, and then, when the island came under the control of the Venetian Republic, by order of the commandant Nicolo Foscari, it was rebuilt in 1492. The renovation work lasted more than three years and touched all the fortress walls that surrounded the city. At the same time, the castle itself was actually rebuilt and already in the style of the Renaissance, and above the entrance to it was attached a stone slab with a bas-relief depicting the Lion of St. Mark - patron of Venice, with the name of N. Foscari himself and the date of 1492. The castle itself consists of of four towers, connected by corridors in the walls, and the towers had loopholes for artillery guns, which were supposed to shell the water area in front of the port. Such a layout made it possible to quickly and covertly transfer soldiers from one area to another, nowhere substituting soldiers for shots. Near the castle there is also an adjoining courtyard, where ancient Turkish and Spanish bronze and iron tools, which are more than 400 years old, as well as stone and iron cannonballs are exhibited.
One of the guns of that time. An iron pipe shackled from a rolled sheet of iron. Then these iron rings were pulled over it in a heated position … The people were absolutely desperate who were shooting from it. Or … they used a long fuse, because very often such guns exploded. The kernels were made of stone, since they played the role of grenades. From hitting something solid, they flew to pieces and crippled others.
There are only one or two trees like this now in Cyprus. Once upon a time, local residents built their ships from such sycamores, chopped them into coal and smelted copper. We wanted the best, but now in drought water is brought in by tankers!
However, this fort was named Othello Castle much later, already during the British colonial rule over Cyprus. Because how could the English pass by such an obvious possibility of perpetuating the memory of their great playwright ?!
