Nicosia: A Walk Through the Walled Old City

In 1567, with the Ottoman threat growing, Venice replaced Nicosia's medieval defences with a new ring designed by Giulio Savorgnan and Francesco Barbaro. The walls run about 5 km around the old city and carry eleven pentagonal bastions; the Pedieos river was diverted to fill the moat. They were still unfinished in 1570, when the city fell after a siege — the Ottomans broke through at Podocattaro Bastion on 9 September. Four and a half centuries later the circuit survives largely intact, among the best-preserved Renaissance fortifications in the eastern Mediterranean. The walk starts where Eleftheria Square now meets the old city.

Location precision: The walls form a continuous 5 km ring; the pin marks their line at Eleftheria Square, where the modern city meets the old one.

Visitor guidance: The wall circuit and its bastions can be traced on foot around the old city.

Famagusta Gate was the city's chief gate, the Porta Giuliani, built in 1567 as part of the new walls and named after its designer. Its vaulted passage runs through the earth rampart beneath a spherical dome eleven metres across, lit by a circular opening at the top. Under British rule the side rooms stored fuel; in 1980 the municipality restored the gate as a cultural centre, and it became a busy exhibition venue. A flood in 2018 closed it for restoration that has not been completed, so check before expecting the interior.

Visitor guidance: The passage and exterior can be seen at the east side of the old city; the cultural-centre rooms are closed for restoration.

The Selimiye was built as the Cathedral of Saint Sophia, founded around 1209 and consecrated in 1326; it is the largest surviving historical building in Nicosia and the largest Gothic church on the island. The kings of Cyprus were crowned here. During the 1570 siege it sheltered a great number of people; after the city fell it was converted into a mosque, and two minarets, a mihrab and a minbar were added. The first Friday prayer was held on 15 September 1570. Renamed Selimiye in 1954, the building has room for 2,500 worshippers.

Visitor guidance: An active mosque in the northern half of the old city, beside the Bedesten.

The low building beside the Selimiye has had several lives. It began as a church around the sixth century and was later dedicated to Saint Nicholas; under Ottoman rule it became a bedesten, a covered market, and in 1573 was assigned to the foundation of Haramayn for textiles. A 2004–2009 restoration, funded by the EU and the Evkaf Administration, cleaned the walls and strengthened the vaults with traditional materials. It won the Europa Nostra Award in 2009 and reopened the building as a cultural centre, now hosting weekly sufi dance shows.

Visitor guidance: The restored Bedesten is a cultural centre beside the Selimiye Mosque.

Built in 1572, the year after the Ottoman conquest, Büyük Han is the largest caravanserai on Cyprus. It follows the plan of Koza Han in Bursa: 68 vaulted rooms on two floors around a square courtyard, with a small mosque and ablution fountain at the centre. Under the British it became the first city prison and held Nicosia's Central Prison from 1892 to 1903; later it sheltered poor families. Most of the 1990s were spent restoring it, and it now works as an arts centre with galleries, workshops, courtyard cafes and souvenir shops. Tenants must sell only goods they make themselves, mostly traditional Cypriot handicrafts.

Visitor guidance: The main door opens onto Asmaaltı Square in the northern half of the old city; the courtyard cafes and galleries are open to visitors.

Kyrenia Gate carried traffic north towards Kyrenia and is one of the three original gates of the walled city. It was built in 1567 with the new walls. The Ottomans repaired it in 1821 and added a lookout and guardhouse against a possible Greek revolt. Tablets from different periods hang on the arch, including a Latin stone dated 1562 and a tablet with a chapter from the Qur'an. The gate now serves as a tourism information office.

Visitor guidance: The gate stands at the north edge of the old city and houses a tourism information office.

Ledra Street has been the capital's main shopping street, a kilometre long, running north from Eleftheria Square; the southern stretch was pedestrianised in 1998. In 1955–1959 it earned the nickname The Murder Mile. In 1963 it was barricaded across the new buffer zone, and the barricade came to symbolise the division of Nicosia between south and north. The Green Line itself was drawn on a map with a green chinagraph pencil on 30 December 1963; after the Berlin Wall fell, Nicosia remained the last divided capital in Europe. The crossing reopened on 3 April 2008, after 34 years.

Visitor guidance: The crossing is open to pedestrians; the southern stretch of the street was pedestrianised in 1998.

The Ömeriye Mosque stands on the site of the Augustinian Church of Saint Mary, which dated to the 14th century and was badly damaged in the 1570 siege before being levelled. Lala Mustafa Pasha ordered a mosque built here, following a belief that Caliph Umar was buried on the spot. The new building kept the old ground plan but was built in Islamic style, with a tall minaret. Turkish Cypriot folklore calls it the first mosque where Turks prayed on the island after 1571. It is active and open to visitors; across the street stands the Ömeriye Hamam, also ordered by Lala Mustafa Pasha, which served bathers until 2012.

Visitor guidance: Open to worshippers and visitors in the southern half of the old city; the hamam opposite is closed.

Paphos Gate was the western entrance, the gate towards Paphos, designed by Giulio Savorgnano; work began in 1567, three years before the Ottoman conquest. Under Ottoman rule it was locked every evening after sunset and the keys handed to the commander of the barracks above. On 12 July 1878 the British commander Lord John Hay took control of Nicosia from the Ottoman forces at that barracks. The following year the British closed the gate to regular traffic and cut a new opening nearby; its north wall still bears the inscription VR 1879.

Visitor guidance: The gate and the 1879 cutting stand in the western wall, a short walk from the old city centre.