NICOLAI DE MARTHONO Notarti Liber Peregrinationis ad Loca Sancta

Concerning the city of Famagusta from Notarti Liber Peregrinationis ad Loca Sancta , 1394

When I reached Famagosta, and how it was built.

On the 27th of the said month of November (1394) I landed at Famagusta. Famagusta belonged formerly to the king of Cyprus, and is situated in the kingdom of Cyprus. Cyprus is a good island, with a circuit of five hundred miles. But now the Genoese hold the said town. The city of Famagusta is large, as large, I reckon, as the city of Capua, and has fine squares, and houses very much like those of Capua, but a great part, almost a third, is uninhabited, and the houses are destroyed, and this has been done since the date of the Genoese lordship. The said city has finer walls than I have seen in any town, high with broad alleys round them, and many and high towers all round. This city is jealously guarded day and night by the Genoese through fear of the king of Cyprus. There are seven hundred armed soldiers in the pay of the Genoese who guard that city with great punctuality.

Of the castle of the city.

The castle of the city is fine, and is nearly all in the sea, except perhaps a fourth part on the city side, and there are fine ditches there constructed on either side which are filled with the sea water, and remain always full of the said water, making the said castle impregnable.