Famagusta is another port city with its Venetian walls that withstood the Ottomans for 11 months in 1570. All the walls are very much intact today, though the town itself stands among ruins. The main square is around the ruined Venetian Palace. The mosque is a skinny minaret attached to the 13th century Gothic Church (right out of France), or whatever is left. Around the city there are over a dozen churches, of every different sect of christianity,, in various states of ruiness, on regular streets with houses, schools, businesses. It was bizarre.
Things got even more bizarre when we walked south to see the ghost town of Varosha. Until the 1974 conflict, half of all tourists to the island came to this area. Today most of the zone is fenced off with barbed wire, guarded by armed soldiers, warning signs of no photos. The hundreds of buildings have stood empty for almost 50 years. Right around them, life goes on, shops, restaurants, hotels....
On the bus from north Nicosia to Famagusta.
The Land Gate of the Venetian City Walls.
The Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque (Formerly Saint Sophia). Notice the minaret at left "plopped" on an uncompleted church tower. All Christian images have been removed from the interior but it still looks like a French church, no?
View of the Venetian Walls from the Sea Gate
Some ruined churches around town. The first two photos below are of the ruins of Church of St. George of the Greeks (Orthodox).
The so-called 13th-century "Twin Crusaders Churches"; now, De Molay Bar.
We are outside the city walls and headed towards the beach and Varosha.
We make our way past war-damaged buildings, LOVE MAGUSA giant letters, barbed wire, and around checkpoints to the beautiful beach.
And finally we are stopped by a fence. Is that Varosha?
1 comment:
I was surprised to see the fence.
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