Namık Kemal Dungeon ( tr, Namık Kemal Zindanı) is a historical building in

Famagusta Famagusta ( , ; el, Αμμόχωστος, Ammóchostos, ; tr, Gazimağusa or ) is a city on the east coast of Geography of Cyprus, Cyprus. It is located east of Nicosia District, Nicosia and possesses the deepest harbour of the island. Duri ...

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 geo ...

, known for being the abode of influential Turkish writer Namık Kemal between 1873 and 1876. The site of the building was originally part of the

Palazzo del Provveditore Palazzo del Provveditore, commonly known as the Venetian Palace, was a royal palace in Famagusta, originally built by the Lusignan Kings of Cyprus. It was later modified and used as the governor's official residence during the Venetian rule. The ...

(Venetian Palace), the building as it currently stands was built during the Ottoman era. The building has two floors, with its lower floor carrying displaying pre-Ottoman architecture and its upper floor being distinctly Ottoman in style. Archaeologist Tuncer Bağışkan has identified the pre-Ottoman style as Lusignan. The building is in an L-shape and whilst the lower floor is made of

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

, the upper floor was built using the Baghdadi technique. On 5 April 1873, when Namık Kemal's play ''

Vatan Yahut Silistre ''Vatan Yahut Silistre'' ("The Motherland or Silistre") was a play composed by the Ottoman poet and political essayist Namık Kemal in 1872. It was one of the first examples of romantic theater in Turkish literature, and included a political na ...

'' was played in the Gedik Pasha Theater in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, he was seen as a potential revolutionary and a threat by Sultan

Abdülaziz Abdulaziz ( ota, عبد العزيز, ʿAbdü'l-ʿAzîz; tr, Abdülaziz; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the 32nd List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was 187 ...

and exiled to Cyprus. At first, he was imprisoned in a small cell in the lower floor. Afterward, with the permission of Veyis Pasha, the mutasarrıf of Cyprus, he was transferred to the room at the upper floor. When Abdülaziz was dethroned, Namık Kemal was pardoned by Murad V on 3 June 1876 and returned to Constantinople on 29 June 1876. Kemal penned his plays ''Gülnihal'' and ''Akif Bey'' in the dungeon. Kemal wrote extensively on Famagusta, giving an extremely negative view of the city, and described his initial small cell as too dark and a place unsuitable for living. The dungeon was reportedly used by the British authorities during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. At the beginning of 1993, the Department of Antiquities of Northern Cyprus started work on the restoration of the dungeon and appropriate arrangements to allow its use as a museum. In six months, the work was complete and the dungeon was opened as a museum. The museum contains many belongings of Kemal and documents relating to him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Namik Kemal Dungeon Buildings and structures in Famagusta Ottoman architecture in Cyprus