The Limassol Medieval Museum is housed in the city's fortress, the famous Limassol Castle. It is located very close to the old harbour in the historic centre of the city.
According to research, the castle itself was built on the site of an ancient Byzantine castle where King Richard the Lionheart is believed to have married Berengaria of Navarre. Not much is known about the history of the new castle. Presumably it was erected during the Lusignan era around the end of the 10th century. Later, in the XVI century, the castle was completely destroyed by one of the earthquakes. The Turks managed to rebuild it, but the size of the fortification became much smaller - only a couple of halls of the ground floor remain from the original fort.
The basis of the collection of the museum, located on the territory of the fortress, was part of the exposition of the Cyprus Museum, dedicated to the Middle Ages. Later it was enriched with new exhibits collected in different cities of Cyprus, including Nicosia.
Thus, now the museum has items that have significantly exceeded the time frame of the originally selected period - the exhibits date from the III-XVIII centuries AD. These include weapons, glassware and ceramics, clothing, coins, lamps, jewellery and ornaments, tools and implements, religious objects, as well as fragments and debris of buildings from Byzantine times, including fragments of wall paintings made in the technique of sgraffito.
Particular attention when visiting the Museum of the Middle Ages should be paid to the tombstones brought from the ancient temples of Nicosia and Famagusta.
