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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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GIOVANNI MARITI
Travels in the Island of Cyprus
page 30

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CHAPTER IV. OF THE CITY OF LARNACA. LARNACA, of which I am now to speak, should properly be called a large village, but as it is the commercial emporium of the whole island, and ranks officially next after Nicosia, though dependent on the Governor there, it can show reason for calling itself a city, being also the seat of a Greek bishopric and the residence of the consuls of the European Powers. This city then lies at half an hour's distance from the houses of the Salines, to the north of the city of Citium : part of the foundations of the ancient walls are included in it. We know nothing of its origin : advantage may have been taken of the nearness of the harbour, and of the materials found in the ruins of Citium. Lusignan tells us that it was already a place of some consequence when the island, in 1570, was taken by the Turks. Here are his words : " Half a league from the Marina is a large village, which is really a town, considering its mer-chants and trade : the government sends a Captain, a Venetian gentleman, who is changed every two years, and has already determined to make it a free town and give it some distinction." Lusignan does not give its name, but by various travellers it is called Arnica, Larnica, Larnaca, Arnaco or Larnaco. The city is of semicircular shape, with its diameter facing south : you can walk round it in an hour. It contains no very ancient monument, merely buildings constructed by the Christians before, or the Moslem after, the conquest. The mosque was a Latin church dedicated to the Holy Cross,

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