Our apartment is just outside the walls. It's a short walk to the head of Ledra Street, the Old City’s hub. In 10 minutes we can walk to the Green Line buffer zone between The Republic of Cyprus and the Occupied Territory.
Nicosia’s Venetian walls were built in 1567 for protection from Ottoman invaders. It sounds like overkill, as Nicosia is about as far from the coast as one can get on this island, and the real prizes were the port cities around the perimeter. But only 3 years later, the Ottomans stormed the fortifications. Fifty thousand residents were killed. The walls and surrounding moat (now used as a car park and for recreation), however, survived. In South Nicosia, they are in good condition. They have not fared as well on the TRNC side, where parts have become overgrown.
A physically less imposing but hugely significant barrier runs eat-west across the center of the Old City. The Green Line was established in 1964 as a ceasefire zone across Cyprus. The intent was to separate and quell the violence between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot factions. (The British commander drawing the original demarcation line happened to use a green pen.) In 1974, after the short-lived Greek coup and subsequent Turkish invasion, the line was redrawn to show new borders. It now stretches 112 miles across the island, ranging in width from 66 feet to nearly 4 ½ miles. It is patrolled by a United Nations Peacekeeping Force.
The UN buffer zone bisecting the Old Town is an ugly barrier of fencing, razer wire, sandbags, barrels and gun placements. It is narrow, roughly 65-100 feet wide.
In 2008, the Ledra Street barricade was replaced with a pedestrian checkpoint between the two zones, allowing residents and visitors to cross fairly easily between the districts.
We started our walking tour on Ledra Street. The pedestrian shopping street is lined with a variety of restaurants, knock-off deals (Hermes bag for $20), souvenir stores, etc. And everything was on sale today!
Best of all, we found our Cypriot KFC.
We took the elevator to the Shacolas Tower Observatory, which offers a 360 degree view over the divided city to the mountain ranges. It has helpful interactive displays that allow you to zoom in and read historical details on the city landmarks.
Looking north into the TRNC
The roof of the Franco-Byzantine Church of Archangelos Machail looked interesting from above, so we headed there. The facade wasn't particularly impressive.
But inside, it is stunning. The 1695 church houses a collection of shimmering gold icons, some of which date to the 15th century. The photos do not do it justice. The sweet old woman at the door told us about the miracle which the church commemorates and gave us pamphlets with more information.
Down the street is the Omeriye Mosque, formerly an Augustinian church. We removed our shoes and I donned one of the available robes for visitors. This working mosque served as a sort of educational center in that it had displays addressing some common misconceptions or false generalisations about Islam, as well as explaining the 5 pillars of Islam, the Koran's teaching on Jesus, etc.
Other landmarks:
Archbishop's Palace, built 1950s
House of Hatzigeorgakis Kornesios (and no one will know if I spelled that right), the Great Dragonman of Cyprus.
Street scenes
The Famagusta Gate, perhaps the architectural inspiration for the Alamo?
We zigzagged along the Green Line working our way to the Ledra Street checkpoint and crossed over to North Nicosia.
We had beers and some hummus with pita, watching the people and a quintet of hopeful cats.
Cats, incidentally, are everywhere. People put out bowls of food and water for them. Most are pretty skittish, but some are more engaging.
Selimiye Mosque is the most prominent landmark in North Nicosia. It's a hybrid of a French Gothic church (Agia Sofia) and a mosque. Non-Muslims can enter, except at times of prayer. The church was built between 1209-1326, with assistance by the builders and artisans of Louis IX (St. Louis). Over the next 250 years, it suffered damage by earthquakes and plundering by the conquerors du jour. With the Ottoman conquest in 1571, the church was converted to a mosque. Like its sister church/mosque in Famagusta, the interior has been whitewashed and stripped of its Christian contents. Twin minarets sit on the bases of former bell towers.
Near the Selimiye Mosque is the Büyük Han (“Great Inn”). It was built by the Ottomans in 1572 as a caravanserai, or inn where traders and travelers could rest in a protected enclosure and recover from the day's journey.
The ground floor rooms around the courtyard served as stables and commerce areas, while the upper floor provided lodging. In the inner courtyard, a small masjid (Islamic prayer room) sits atop 6 columns over an ablutions fountain.
After successive turns as a British prison, an inn and cheap housing for the city’s poor, Büyük Han was renovated in the 1980s, Today it is a lively crafts center housing workshops, galleries, cafes and souvenir shops.
It's not uncommon in the eastern Mediterranean to see draping cloths or lattice work to provide some shade over bazaars or shopping districts (see the Ledra Street photo near the beginning of this post). This street in North Nicosia really ramped it up with its colorful display.
So goodbye too Nicosia and on the road to Kakopetria (Κακοπετριάς) in the Troodos Mountains, where we want to be off the steep narrow roads before dark.
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