CYPRUS: Historical and Descriptive.
From the earliest times to the present day. New York., 1878
The Church of St. Katherine, now turned into a
mosque, has a fine entrance, adorned with three
arches and pillars, with Corinthian capitals. Two
stately marble columns lie in the court-yard; these,
with their fine carved escutcheons, have been torn
down by the Turks and employed as seats. The
graves of the brave defenders of the city are still
held in honor, and small cupolas are erected to mark
their resting-places. The spot where the first Turk mounted and fell when the city was stormed, is also
distinguished by a small dome. The gravestone is
marble, and the coffin of wood, overshadowed by
the green flag of the Prophet. Nikosia can boast a
very unusual number of churches and mosques, and
we are told that, when the city was at the height
of its glory, there were no less than two hundred
and fifty chapels and churches. Cyprus is also
especially remarkable for the number of graves of its saints.
WILLIAM DREGHORN The Antiquities of Turkish Nicosia
This is in Kirlizade Street, about 300m north east of St. Sophia. In the 14th century, this was the second largest church in Nicosia and in 1570 became the Haidar Pasa Mosque. The building was not destroyed, but a tall minaret was added at one corner, as shown in fig. 13. There are two fine, richly carved doorways and two long lancet type windows which are worth a photograph. These large windows demand very strong buttresses as they made the wall weak, and those shown in fig. 13 are similar to St. Sophia' s. Little is known about the history of St. Catherine's. |
