Cyprus in the transformations of the 15th century through the eyes of Czech pilgrims Jan Hasištějnský of Lobkowitz, Oldřich Prefát of Vlkanov, and Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice
Abstract
The time of the Ottoman expansion and the Protestant Reformation in Europe saw a growing interest in private trips to Jerusalem with an intermediate stop in Cyprus. The stormy events in the Christian world of the 15th and 16th centuries and the growing danger from the Ottomans drove a strong desire to find the original and pure Christian church.
Reading the texts of the travellers of the time, we can conclude that in the late 15th and early 16th centuries there was a significant increase in voyages to the Holy Land through the Venetian-occupied Hellenic world and the Turkishoccupied Cyprus. Thus, we are informed of the Venetian possessions that were gradually passing into the hands of the Ottomans, including Cyprus.
Despite the fact that none of the travellers focuses primarily on the Cypriot reality, and although direct references to the society of the time are rare in their writings, we still obtain some much-needed information about both the island and the travellers themselves. Finally, where the dangerous situation does not allow the pilgrim to circulate freely during his stay on the island, we find more information through numerous and diverse references and quotations made by the travellers, who use the books of ancient and contemporary writers as their guide.
The paper offers an authentic perception of the Cypriot world through eyewitness accounts of 15th and 16th century travellers Jan Hasištějnský of Lobkowitz, Oldřich Prefát of Vlkanov, and Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice.