The Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque ( tr, Lala Mustafa Paşa Camii), originally known as the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas and later as the Saint Sophia (Ayasofya) Mosque of Mağusa, is the largest medieval building in Famagusta,

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. Built between 1298 and c. 1400, it was consecrated as a Catholic

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

in 1328. The cathedral was converted into a mosque after the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

captured Famagusta in 1571 and it remains a mosque to this day. From 1954 the building has taken its name from

Lala Mustafa Pasha Lala Mustafa Pasha ( – 7 August 1580), also known by the additional epithet ''Kara'', was an Ottoman Bosnian general and Grand Vizier from the Sanjak of Bosnia. Life He was born around 1500, near the Glasinac in Sokolac Plateau in Bosnia t ...

, the Grand Vizier of the

from Sokolovići in Bosnia, who served

Murat III Murad III ( ota, مراد ثالث, Murād-i sālis; tr, III. Murad; 4 July 1546 – 16 January 1595) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Saf ...

and led Ottoman forces against the Venetians in Cyprus.

History

Early history

The French

Lusignan The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries duri ...

dynasty ruled as

Kings of Cyprus The Kingdom of Cyprus (french: Royaume de Chypre, la, Regnum Cypri) was a state that existed between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan. It comprised not only the island of Cyprus, but it also had a foothold on the Anat ...

from 1192 to 1489 and brought with them the latest French taste in architecture, notably developments in

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...

. The cathedral was constructed from 1298 to 1312 and was consecrated in 1328. A unique inscription on a buttress beside the south door records the progress of construction in 1311. "After an unfortunate episode when the current bishop embezzled the restoration fund", Bishop Guy of Ibelin bequeathed 20,000

bezant In the Middle Ages, the term bezant (Old French ''besant'', from Latin ''bizantius aureus'') was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Roman ''solidus''. The word itself comes from th ...

s for its construction. The Lusignans would be crowned as Kings of Cyprus in the St. Sophia Cathedral (now Selimiye Mosque) in Nicosia and then crowned as

Kings of Jerusalem The King of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was conquered in 1099. Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of th ...

in the St Nicholas Cathedral in Famagusta. The building is built in

Rayonnant Gothic In French Gothic architecture, Rayonnant () is the period from about the mid-13th century to mid-14th century. It was characterized by a shift away from the High Gothic search for increasingly large size toward more spatial unity, refined decora ...

style, quite rare outside France, though "mediated through buildings in the Rhineland". The historic tie between France and Cyprus is evidenced by its parallels to French archetypes such as

Reims Cathedral , image = Reims Kathedrale.jpg , imagealt = Facade, looking northeast , caption = Façade of the cathedral, looking northeast , pushpin map = France , pushpin map alt = Location within France , ...

. Indeed, so strong is the resemblance, that the building has been dubbed "The Reims of Cyprus"; it was built with three doors, twin towers over the aisles and a flat roof, typical of Crusader architecture. Sometime after 1480, a meeting chamber, known as the ''Loggia Bembo'', was added to the south-west corner of the cathedral. Notable for its elaborately moulded entrance with slender pillars in marble, it is in an architectural style that departs considerably from that of the cathedral proper. The association with the Bembo family, some of whom held prominent positions in Cyprus, is shown by their heraldic devices on the building. To enhance the Loggia, late antique fragments in marble, probably brought from Salamis, were placed as seats each side of the entrance.

Ottoman Era

The upper parts of the cathedral's two towers suffered from earthquakes, were badly damaged during the Ottoman bombardments of 1571, and were never repaired. With the Venetians defeated and Famagusta fallen by August 1571, Cyprus fell under Ottoman control and the cathedral was converted into a mosque, renamed the "St. Sophia Mosque of Mağusa".
Nearly all statuary, cruciforms, stained glass, frescos, and paintings were removed or plastered over, as well as most tombs and the altar. The Gothic structure was preserved however, and a few tombs can still be identified in the north aisle. In 1954, it was renamed the

Mosque after the commander of the 1570 Ottoman conquest - infamous for the gruesome torture of

Marco Antonio Bragadin Marco Antonio Bragadin, also Marcantonio Bragadin (21 April 1523 – 17 August 1571), was a Venetian lawyer and military officer of the Republic of Venice. Bragadin joined the ''Fanti da Mar'' Corps or marines of the Republic of Venice. In 1569, ...

, the Venetian commander of the city's fortress. Bragadin had surrendered the city following a brutal 10-month siege in which 6,000 Christian defenders held off an army of more than 100,000 Ottoman Turks.

Architectural legacy

The Cathedral of St. Nicholas was not widely emulated as far as can be judged from surviving buildings of the Lusignan period in Cyprus. However, in the nineteenth century the west portal and other details were copied directly in the Greek Orthodox church at

Lysi Lysi ( gr, Λύση, tr, Akdoğan or ) is a village located in the Mesaoria plain in Cyprus, north of the city of Larnaca. It is under the ''de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. Lysi is also the administration center for the villages of Beyar ...

Famagusta Cathedral in literature

Famagusta Cathedral appears in several works of literature, including ''Kuraj'' by the Italian writer Silvia Di Natale, ''Sunrise'' by the British author

Victoria Hislop Victoria Hislop (née Hamson; born 1959) is an English author. Early life Born in Bromley, Kent, she was raised in Tonbridge and attended Tonbridge Grammar School. She studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and worked in publishing and ...

and ''In Search of Sixpence'' by the Anglo-Cypriot author

Michael Paraskos Michael Paraskos, FHEA, FRSA (born 1969) is a novelist, lecturer and writer on art. He has written several non-fiction and fiction books and essays, and articles on art, literature, culture and politics for various publications, including ''Art ...

Gallery

File:Loggia sculpture detail.jpg, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Famagusta, Cyprus, detail of a late antique lintel used as a seat in front of Loggia Bembo. File:Inscription on Famagusta cathedral, Cyprus, in 2009.jpg, Inscription dated 1311 on the south side of St. Nicholas Cathedral, Famagusta, recording the progress of the construction. File:Loggia Bembo, Famagusta, Cyprus.jpg, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Famagusta, Cyprus, Loggia Bembo, detail of the entrance, ''circa'' 1480s. The heraldic devices of the Bembo family are on the abaci of the pillars and visible on the end of the marble seat. File:Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque (Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Famagusta) (16).JPG, The interior.

References

External links

Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque (St Nicholas Cathedral)

* ttp://www.cyprus44.com/photos/show.asp?photo=lala-mustafa-pasha-mosque-from-helicopter Aerial photograph
Flickr photograph

Interior photo of the nave

Cyprus travel guide

St Peter and Paul Church (Sinan Pasha Mosque) Famagusta
{{Mosques in Cyprus Buildings and structures completed in 1400 14th-century mosques Cathedrals in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Mosques in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Mosques converted from churches in the Ottoman Empire Gothic architecture in Cyprus Buildings and structures in Famagusta Former cathedrals in Cyprus Burial sites of the House of Lusignan