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Hazard, H. W. (ed.) / The art and architecture of the crusader states
(1977)
V: The Arts in Cyprus, pp. 165-207
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Page 205
Ch.V CYPRUS:MILITARY ARCHITECTURE 205 the main entrance, reduced by a later Frankish arch, and the carved corbels of the brattice which overhung it, the greater part of the encircling walls at all levels with their semicircular towers and, in the middle ward, much of the gatehouse, the church, and chambers immediately adjoining it. The earlier Frankish improvements and additions, such as the rampart on the summit with its rectangular towers characterized by flat terrace roofs on timber, may date from the Lombard war, when first the imperial faction and then Henry's supporters were besieged here. The later and more substantial Frankish additions and reconstructions, for which a fourteenthcentury date is indicated, had either steep-pitched wood-and-tile roofs, as in the case of the hail in the middle ward and the royal apartments in the upper, or like the undercroft of the latter building and the "belvedere" were covered with barrel or cross-vaults. At Buffavento and Kantara the same characteristics are to be seen, except that the Byzantine work is less in evidence. Of the two, Kantara better illustrates the work of the Lusignan castle-builders (fig. 12). It is a walled enclosure as regular as the site permitted, with barrel- and cross-vaulted quarters attached to the curtain. On the more accessible eastern side there is a double line, forming a barbican about the entrance. Both lines run out on the flanks to horseshoe towers, forming an ensemble as dramatic as it is effective for defense 12. Plan of Kantara
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