Caterina's Bequest - Nicosia

Part three - Nicosia (detail of a Venetian Winged Lion in the fortifications of Famagusta ) If you came to this page directly, you might wish to read a page with an introduction to this section first.

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Caterina's Bequest - Nicosia

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All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore. Page revised in August 2011.

Venetian bastion Nicosia was the capital of Cyprus during the rule of the Lusignan family (1192-1474); its location at the centre of the island was in line with the feudal system introduced from France. The Venetians preferred to move the residence of their governor to Famagusta, the main port of the island; they did not care much about Nicosia until they felt the threat of an Ottoman invasion. The medieval walls did not ensure an adequate protection against cannon warfare and they were too long for the small Venetian garrison. In 1565 the Venetians started to build new walls and pulled down all the buildings outside them. The new enclosure had the shape of a twelve-pointed star with a round bastion at each end.

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Caterina's Bequest - Nicosia

(left) Venetian bastion; (right)

Venetian Column which probably supported

a statue of the Winged Lion; the column

was taken from the ancient town of Salamis

The walls were yet to be completed when in March 1570 Sultan Selim II sent an ultimatum with insulting terms to the Council of Ten in Venice, demanding the immediate cession of Cyprus: a few months later an Ottoman army landed near Salina (Larnaka), on the southern coast of the island, and laid siege to Nicosia on July 25. On September 9 the Ottomans managed to conquer one of the bastions and overwhelmed the Venetian garrison; Lala Mustafa Pacha, the Ottoman commander, deliberately acted with great cruelty with the objective of sending

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Caterina's Bequest - Nicosia

a message to the defenders of the other two Venetian fortresses in Cyprus: Famagusta and Cirenes (Kyrenia/Girne): Niccolò Dandolo, the Venetian commander was beheaded and his head was sent to Famagusta in a tin box.

(left) Kyrenia Gate (Porta del

Provveditore); (right) enlargement showing: a) a 1562

Latin inscription (parts of which are missing but

the sense is clear: URBE DERELI(CTA) is a reference to the

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Caterina's Bequest - Nicosia

before the Venetians rebuilt its walls and gates); b) a tablet with verses

from the Koran (above the Latin inscription);

c) GVRI and 1931 (at the sides of the

Latin inscription), a reference to a

British restoration made in 1931 during the reign

of King George V (Georgius V Rex et Imperator)

The Venetian enclosure had only three gates; in 1931 the northern one was isolated from the huge rampart into which it was located (you may wish to see it in a separate window before the changes).

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Caterina's Bequest - Nicosia

Cathedral of Nicosia (Hagia Sophia): (left)

side entrance; (right) apse

In 1208, soon after taking control of Cyprus, the Lusignan kings started building a new cathedral in Nicosia; it took them more than a century to complete it (1328); with reference to that of Constantinople they dedicated it to Hagia Sophia, but the two buildings could not be more different, as the cathedral of Nicosia was designed in pure French Gothic style. It was converted into a mosque with the addition of two minarets and dedicated to Sultan Selim II, so it was called Selimiye Camii, a name which in turn recalls the mosque by the same name at Edirne, the masterpiece of Mimar Sinan, the great Ottoman architect.

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(left/centre) St. Nicholas'; (right)

St. Catherine's

In addition to the cathedral other large churches in Gothic style were built by the Kings of Cyprus; the Venetians assigned St. Nicholas' to the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan; the Ottomans turned the building into a bedesten (covered market) while St. Catherine's became a mosque.

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Detail of the portal of St. Nicholas'

The portal of St Nicholas was decorated with six fine coats of arms of Frankish noble families. The image used as background for this page shows a relief with another coat of arms of a local family. Some families from France played a major role in the running of the Kingdom of Cyprus; the Ibelin family held important positions including that of seneschal, a royal officer in charge of the administration of justice; similar to the Ibelin, the Giblet held key positions; these and other families took side in various quarrels which occurred in the House of Lusignan. Henri de Giblet was one of the three knights who in 1369 assassinated King Peter I in his own bed. The influence of these families subsided in the last years of the kingdom when Italian and Catalan merchants and bankers replaced them as advisers to the king and were assigned the most important positions.

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Portals of Lusignan House (left) and of

the Lapidary Museum (centre);

(right) coat of arms of Francesco Donà, Doge

of Venice between 1545-53 Because of the events which occurred between 1950 and 1974 when Nicosia was partitioned along ethnic lines, little attention has been paid to preserving the historical heritage of the city and in particular that belonging to the Franco-Venetian period, which Greeks and Turks alike regard as extraneous to their cultures. Yet by wandering in the streets of Lefkosa (the Turkish part of Nicosia) it is possible to come across some interesting memories of that period. See the other pages of this section:

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Famagusta - The Walls Famagusta - The Churches Cirenes

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

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