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All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore.

The claws over the inscription Part three - Nicosia

Nicosia became the capital of Cyprus under the Lusignans. The Venetians preferred Famagusta. On the eve of the Turkish invasion in 1570 the Venetians redesigned Nicosia by building new walls and laying waste to all the buildings outside them. Twelve bastions gave it the shape of a star. The walls had just been completed when the Turks sent an ultimatum with insulting terms in March 1570 to the Council of Ten in Venice, demanding the immediate cession of Cyprus: a few months later a Turkish army landed near Larnaca, proceeded unharassed and laid siege to Nicosia on 25 July 1570. On September 9 the Turks overwhelmed the small garrison of Nicosia and sacked the town. They acted with great cruelty with the objective of sending a message to the Venetian commanders of the other two fortresses in Cyprus: Famagusta and Kyrenia. Most of the Venetian troops were in Famagusta, but Venice preferred not to send them to help the defenders of Nicosia.

The Walls

The small Kyrenia gate was restored under British rule and it shows the Venetian inscription of 1567, a later Turkish inscription and the 1931 logo of King George V.

Kyrenia Gate

The Cathedral of Nicosia (see picture below) was dedicated to St Sofia and it was built following the pattern of the French cathedrals (the background of this page shows a relief with the coat of arms of a local family). It was converted into a mosque with the addition of two minarets.

The Cathedral

Other churches were also converted into mosques or into other buildings. The picture here below shows: (left) the Cathedral of St Catherine which became a mosque; (right) the church of St Nicholas which was converted into a bedesten (covered market).

Other churches

The portal of St Nicholas was decorated with fine coats of arms of the Frankish noble families.

Coats of arms

See the other pages of this section:

Famagusta - The Walls
Famagusta - The Churches
Kyrenia



SEE THESE OTHER EXHIBITIONS (for a full list see my detailed list).