Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque
Encyclopedia
Famagusta
Famagusta is a city on the east coast of Cyprus and is capital of the Famagusta District. It is located east of Nicosia, and possesses the deepest harbour of the island.-Name:...
, North Cyprus. Built between 1298 and c.1400 it was consecrated as a Christian cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
in 1328. The cathedral was converted into a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
after the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
captured Famagusta in 1571 and it remains a mosque to this day.
Early history
The French LusignanLusignan
The Lusignan family originated in Poitou near Lusignan in western France in the early 10th century. By the end of the 11th century, they had risen to become the most prominent petty lords in the region from their castle at Lusignan...
dynasty ruled as Kings of Cyprus from 1192 to 1489 and had brought with them the latest French taste in architecture, notably developments in Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
.
The cathedral was constructed from 1298 to 1312 and was consecrated in 1328. "After an unfortunate episode when the current bishop embezzled the restoration fund", Bishop Guy of Ibelin bequeathed 20,000 bezants for its construction. The Lusignans would be crowned as Kings of Cyprus in the St. Sophia Cathedral
Selimiye Mosque (Nicosia)
Selimiye Mosque or Agia Sofia Cathedral, formerly Cathédrale Sainte Sophie, is located in the Turkish controlled northern part of the walled city of Nicosia. It is the main mosque in the city. It is housed in the largest and oldest surviving gothic church in Cyprus possibly constructed on the site...
(now Selimiye Mosque) in Nicosia and then crowned as Kings of Jerusalem in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Famagusta.
The building is constructed in Rayonnant Gothic
Rayonnant
Rayonnant is a term used to describe a period in the development of French Gothic architecture, ca. 1240–1350. Developing out of the High Gothic style, Rayonnant is characterised by a shift in focus away from the great scale and spatial rationalism of buildings like Chartres Cathedral or the...
style, quite rare outside France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan 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 the Reims Cathedral
Reims Cathedral
Notre-Dame de Reims is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned. It replaces an older church, destroyed by a fire in 1211, which was built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in AD 496. That original...
. Indeed, so strong is the resemblance, that the building has been dubbed "The Reims of Cyprus". The building has three doors, twin towers over the aisles and a flat roof, typical of Crusader architecture.
Ottoman Era
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
bombardments of 1571; they have never been repaired. With the Venetians defeated and Famagusta fallen by August of 1571, Cyprus fell under Ottoman control
Cyprus under the Ottoman Empire
The Eyalet of Cyprus was created in 1571, and changed its status frequently. It was a sanjak of the Eyalet of the Archipelago from 1660 to 1703, and again from 1784 onwards; a fief of the Grand Vizier , and again an eyalet for the short period 1745-1748.- Ottoman raids and conquest :Throughout the...
and the cathedral was converted into a mosque and renamed the "St.Sophia Mosque of Mağusa".
Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic tradition holds that the depiction of humans, animals and other faiths in their religious architecture is sinful and so almost all of the statues, crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
es, fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es, paintings, tombs, stained glass windows and the altar were removed or plastered over. The Gothic structure was preserved however and a few tombs can still be identified in the north aisle.
In 1954 its name was changed again to the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque after the commander of the 1570 Ottoman conquest, who is famous for the gruesome torture of Marco Bragadin
Marco Antonio Bragadin
Marco Antonio Bragadin, also Marcantonio Bragadin was an Italian lawyer and military officer of the Republic of Venice....
, 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. A pledge of amnesty was secured from Lala Mustafa Pasha, who then reneged and had Bragadin beaten, and had his ears and nose cut off before being publicly humiliated and flayed alive.
See also
- RayonnantRayonnantRayonnant is a term used to describe a period in the development of French Gothic architecture, ca. 1240–1350. Developing out of the High Gothic style, Rayonnant is characterised by a shift in focus away from the great scale and spatial rationalism of buildings like Chartres Cathedral or the...
- Saint Sophia Cathedral, NicosiaSelimiye Mosque (Nicosia)Selimiye Mosque or Agia Sofia Cathedral, formerly Cathédrale Sainte Sophie, is located in the Turkish controlled northern part of the walled city of Nicosia. It is the main mosque in the city. It is housed in the largest and oldest surviving gothic church in Cyprus possibly constructed on the site...
- LysiLysiLysi is a village located in the Mesaoria plain of the Famagusta district of Cyprus, north of the city of Larnaca.In 1960, there were 3,700 Greek Cypriots living in the village and approximately 6,000 in 1974 when they all fled because of the Turkish invasion and occupation of the north part of...
- Conversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosquesConversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosquesConversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosques began during the life of Muhammad and continued during subsequent Islamic conquests and under the Muslim rule...