famagusta town map-1

'There are 365 churches in Famagusta, one for every day of the year.' I have heard this piece of gossip from
many local people, and also found it in many guide books, but the statement is not true. (Bill Dreghorn)
Including St Nicholas cathedral, there are 17 churches within the town walls. They are all marked on this map.

Famagusta seems to have suddenly sprung up as a medieval fortress city of the first rank about the year 1300, when the refugees from Syria and Palestine (after the fall of Acre, 1291) were offered an asylum here by the Lusignan King Henry II.

"The third city of Cyprus is called Famagusta, situated on the sea shore; here are the harbours of all this sea and realm, and a concourse of merchants and pilgrims. It lies directly opposite to Armenia, Turkey and Acre. It is the richest of all cities and her citizens are the richest of men. A citizen once betrothed his daughter, and the jewels of her head-dress were valued by the French knights who came with us as more precious than all the ornaments of the Queen of France." (Ludolf von Suchen, "De Terra Sancta", 1336).

De Mas Latrie ("Histoire de Chypre", p. 512) remarks: "Le royaume de Chypre resta toujours en effet, pour l'Europe comme l'heritiere et le representant du Royaume de Jerusalem. En lui se confondaient le passé et l'esperance des Croisades. Le Royaume de Chypre continua ainsi dans son organisation generale autant dans l'ordre civil que dans l'ordre politique et ecclesistique l'ancien Royaume de Jerusalem." This heritage of the Jerusalem Kingdom, with its commercial enterprise of the crusading epoch was of short duration in Cyprus. The extravagant luxury and splendour of the community which had been transferred from Acre to Famagusta in 1300 was doomed to disappear as suddenly as it had arisen, and the Genoese invasion appears to have swept it entirely away.

Genoese occupation

After the Genoese Occupation of Famagusta in 1372, the Italian notary Nicholas Martoni wrote the following account of his visit to the city in 1394: "The city of Famagusta is as large, I reckon, as the city of Capua, and has fine squares, and houses very much like those of Capua, but a great part, almost a third, is uninhabited, and the houses are destroyed, and this has been done since the date of the Genoese lordship. The said city has finer walls than I have seen in any town, high with broad alleys round them, and many and high towers all round."

Since the year 1400 the city has passed through the vicissitudes of being a strong fortress of the Venetians, a penal settlement of the Turks, and lastly a quarry of old building materials whence much of the stone used in constructing the Suez Canal has been drawn. Once the busy "Emporium of the East", its former greatness is only evinced by a ruined cathedral and stupendous fortifications.

Topography op the City

During the middle ages the usual division of a city into quarters is referred to in descriptions of Famagusta. The quarter of the Zecca or Mint is mentioned in the Genoese records, and this quarter is marked on the famous plan of Gibellino (1571) as situated near the land gate of the fortress on its south side. The quarter of the Arsenal consisted of the buildings attached to that important institution, and its surroundings.

The city seems also to have been broadly divided into a Latin half on the north and west, and an Orthodox half on the south and east. This division between the races and religions of the middle ages was marked by the main street which runs between the Land Gate and the Sea Gate, passing through the main piazza in front of the royal palace. This street probably formed for the greater part of its length a kind of covered bazaar, some remains of which still stand amongst the ruins of the south side of the palace. A secondary bazaar leading from the north-west corner of the main piazza in the direction of the north-west angle of the city walls was known as the "Volta Templi", built about 1300 in conjunction with the church of the Order of the Temple. A street leading from the centre of the main piazza in a direction due north seems to have been of some importance to judge by the remains of architectural buildings still surviving in it.

Wealth and luxury

On the north side of the city, near the citadel, was the parade ground and the shooting butts. The presence of much wealth and luxury naturally necessitated a strong protecting wall round such a city as Famagusta had become, and the magnificent rock-hewn ditch which forms the most remarkable feature of the fortifications doubtless was excavated both as a protection and as a quarry for stone to be used in the new buildings of the early XIIIth century.

In addition to the existing Land Gate and Sea Gate there appear to have been two smaller gates or posterns. The outline of a walled up entrance may be traced in the curtain wall between the Campo Santo and Andruzzi Bastions, and traces of another and larger gate survive in the curtain between the Diamantino and Signoria Bastions. One of the town gates was known in the middle ages as "Porta della Cava" a name which may have been derived from the shrine of the "Madonna della Cava" on the south side of the city. (Source: Historic Monuments of Cyprus, Jeffery).

CYPRUS \| close window \|	CITY PLAN OF WALLED FAMAGUSTA (GAZIMAGUSA) Please note: this is a multi-clickable map (on red/white spots) Version 1.7 (May 2, 2011) External link: more maps of Famagusta
'There are 365 churches in Famagusta, one for every day of the year.' I have heard this piece of gossip from many local people, and also found it in many guide books, but the statement is not true. (Bill Dreghorn) Including St Nicholas cathedral, there are 17 churches within the town walls. They are all marked on this map. Famagusta seems to have suddenly sprung up as a medieval fortress city of the first rank about the year 1300, when the refugees from Syria and Palestine (after the fall of Acre, 1291) were offered an asylum here by the Lusignan King Henry II. "The third city of Cyprus is called Famagusta, situated on the sea shore; here are the harbours of all this sea and realm, and a concourse of merchants and pilgrims. It lies directly opposite to Armenia, Turkey and Acre. It is the richest of all cities and her citizens are the richest of men. A citizen once betrothed his daughter, and the jewels of her head-dress were valued by the French knights who came with us as more precious than all the ornaments of the Queen of France." (Ludolf von Suchen, "De Terra Sancta", 1336). De Mas Latrie ("Histoire de Chypre", p. 512) remarks: "Le royaume de Chypre resta toujours en effet, pour l'Europe comme l'heritiere et le representant du Royaume de Jerusalem. En lui se confondaient le passé et l'esperance des Croisades. Le Royaume de Chypre continua ainsi dans son organisation generale autant dans l'ordre civil que dans l'ordre politique et ecclesistique l'ancien Royaume de Jerusalem." This heritage of the Jerusalem Kingdom, with its commercial enterprise of the crusading epoch was of short duration in Cyprus. The extravagant luxury and splendour of the community which had been transferred from Acre to Famagusta in 1300 was doomed to disappear as suddenly as it had arisen, and the Genoese invasion appears to have swept it entirely away. Genoese occupation After the Genoese Occupation of Famagusta in 1372, the Italian notary Nicholas Martoni wrote the following account of his visit to the city in 1394: "The city of Famagusta is as large, I reckon, as the city of Capua, and has fine squares, and houses very much like those of Capua, but a great part, almost a third, is uninhabited, and the houses are destroyed, and this has been done since the date of the Genoese lordship. The said city has finer walls than I have seen in any town, high with broad alleys round them, and many and high towers all round." Since the year 1400 the city has passed through the vicissitudes of being a strong fortress of the Venetians, a penal settlement of the Turks, and lastly a quarry of old building materials whence much of the stone used in constructing the Suez Canal has been drawn. Once the busy "Emporium of the East", its former greatness is only evinced by a ruined cathedral and stupendous fortifications. Topography op the City During the middle ages the usual division of a city into quarters is referred to in descriptions of Famagusta. The quarter of the Zecca or Mint is mentioned in the Genoese records, and this quarter is marked on the famous plan of Gibellino (1571) as situated near the land gate of the fortress on its south side. The quarter of the Arsenal consisted of the buildings attached to that important institution, and its surroundings. The city seems also to have been broadly divided into a Latin half on the north and west, and an Orthodox half on the south and east. This division between the races and religions of the middle ages was marked by the main street which runs between the Land Gate and the Sea Gate, passing through the main piazza in front of the royal palace. This street probably formed for the greater part of its length a kind of covered bazaar, some remains of which still stand amongst the ruins of the south side of the palace. A secondary bazaar leading from the north-west corner of the main piazza in the direction of the north-west angle of the city walls was known as the "Volta Templi", built about 1300 in conjunction with the church of the Order of the Temple. A street leading from the centre of the main piazza in a direction due north seems to have been of some importance to judge by the remains of architectural buildings still surviving in it. Wealth and luxury On the north side of the city, near the citadel, was the parade ground and the shooting butts. The presence of much wealth and luxury naturally necessitated a strong protecting wall round such a city as Famagusta had become, and the magnificent rock-hewn ditch which forms the most remarkable feature of the fortifications doubtless was excavated both as a protection and as a quarry for stone to be used in the new buildings of the early XIIIth century. In addition to the existing Land Gate and Sea Gate there appear to have been two smaller gates or posterns. The outline of a walled up entrance may be traced in the curtain wall between the Campo Santo and Andruzzi Bastions, and traces of another and larger gate survive in the curtain between the Diamantino and Signoria Bastions. One of the town gates was known in the middle ages as "Porta della Cava" a name which may have been derived from the shrine of the "Madonna della Cava" on the south side of the city. (Source: Historic Monuments of Cyprus, Jeffery).