Image: pht_RC_091 – Richard Chamberlain, Large old cannon that was on the Old City Wall, photograph, 1954.
George Jeffery was an architect, historian and the Director of Antiquities during the early colonial years.
He commented on the plantations of the Government House, where a forest began to grow, encircling the hill where the house was built. On a spur of this hill was a flagstaff, and a terrace walk where there could be found one of the most interesting relics of former times preserved in Cyprus: An old bronze cannon given by King Henry VIII to de l’ Isle Adam, Grand Master of the Order of St John, on the eve of the Reformation.
This relic of the 16th century was discovered by a sponge fisher in Famagusta Bay, at about a mile distance from the harbour in 1907.
It bears the familiar badge of the Tudor Dynasty of England as well as the coat of arms of a Grand Master of the Order of St John, Villiers de l’ Isle Adam.
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
The ‘Did You Know’ series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus).
