Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

Part one - The Walls of Famagusta (detail of a Venetian Winged Lion in the fortifications of Famagusta) Introduction These pages deal with the surviving monuments of the Frankish and Venetian rule over Cyprus (1192-1571). In 1187 Saladin the Great, Sultan of Egypt and Syria conquered Jerusalem. Pope Gregory VIII issued a papal bull (Audita tremendi .. - Having heard the horrible news..) which called for a new crusade (the third one). In April 1191, King Richard the Lionheart, who was one of the leaders of the crusade, sailed from Messina in Sicily to reach the Holy Land. Some of his ships were wrecked on Cyprus and the crews were maltreated by the men of Isaac Comnenos, the local ruler who belonged to an important Byzantine family. Richard subsequently seized the island and captured Isaac who was released for a ransom many years later. In June King Richard set sail for Acre where he joined the great Christian force which had been besieging this town since 1189. Richard remained in Palestine until 1192, when, after having vainly attempted to restore the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, he reached an agreement with Saladin which allowed Christian access to the Holy Sites of the city. Richard sold the Kingdom of Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan, his vassal in Poitou, a region of France, who was the titular King of Jerusalem by right of marriage, as a compensation for having failed to reinstate him on the throne.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

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All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore. Page revised in August 2011.

Map of the Eastern Mediterranean

Sea and enlargement showing Cyprus and the

three towns covered in this section. You may wish to see maps with

lists of locations covered in this website

in Turkey , Syria and Greece The Lusignans ruled Cyprus for nearly three centuries and they did so by introducing the feudal system existing in western Europe which meant serfage for the Greek population of the island. In the XIVth century the Lusignans had to face the growing influence of Venice and Genoa in the Levant and they usually sided with the Venetians; in 1373 the Genoese in retaliation occupied Famagusta, the main port of the island. In 1453, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople brought a new actor on to the political scene of the Levant. Venice signed a peace treaty with Sultan Mehmet II in 1454, but the confrontation was only postponed. The war erupted in 1463 when the Turks seized Argo. It lasted until 1479 and at the end Venice lost several possessions in Greece and Albania. The Lusignans in order to conquer back Famagusta, borrowed significant amounts of money from Venetian bankers, in particular from the Cornaro family. In 1468 King James II the Bastard, whose right to the throne was challenged by Louis Count of Savoy (who married James' legitimate half-sister Charlotte), decided to strengthen his ties with his bankers and Venice by marrying by proxy Caterina Cornaro, daughter of Ser Marco Cornaro.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

The Senate of Venice seized this opportunity for counterbalancing its losses in Greece and Albania. Caterina was named "Daughter of the Republic" and James was forced to sign a statement by which Caterina inherited the kingdom, should he die without leaving a heir. In 1473, a few months after the arrival of Caterina on Cyprus, James died at the age of 33 and Venice sent its fleet to Famagusta to protect the young widow. Caterina, assisted by Venetian advisers, reigned over Cyprus on behalf of her infant son James III and after his death in her own right until 1489, when she was forced by her family to bequeath her kingdom to the Republic. Caterina returned to Venice where she was assigned the town of Asolo where she set up a small court. The background of this page shows Caterina in a drawing by Albert Durer, based on a painting by Giovanni Bellini.

Famagusta: the Walls It was after the loss of Acre in 1291 that Famagusta rose to great importance as one of the main trading centres of the Levant. In 1373 the Genoese seized the town by surprise and it remained in Genoese hands until 1464, in spite of numerous attempts to recapture it by the kings of Cyprus.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

Land gate The Venetians moved the government of the island from Nicosia to Famagusta and they subsequently strengthened its fortifications by building new walls which were able to sustain the impact of cannon warfare.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

Views of the towers and of the moat

Massive round towers and a deep moat were among the key features of the new fortification system; they were similar to those built at Rhodes by the Knights of St. John.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

A detail of the fortifications near

the Land Gate

One feature of the defensive system was the ability to rapidly move cannon and other war machinery to the sites where they were needed. For this reason even the highest points of the fortifications were made accessible to carriages and pack animals. The strategic objective of the fortifications was to gain time in order to allow the Venetian fleet to reach Famagusta and bring supplies and new troops.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

(left) Entrance to Castelo da Mar

(Sea Castle); (right) detail of

the relief portraying the Winged Lion of

St. Mark, the symbol of Venice, wearing the

crown of the Kingdom of Cyprus

The new walls included a Frankish castle protecting the harbour of Famagusta, which was transformed into the "Castelo da Mar" common in many Venetian Fortresses in Greece, in particular in Candia.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

Interior of the castle built by the Lusignans

The castle is today known as Othello's castle, as holiday-makers to the many beaches of the island are more familiar with Othello, than with the Lion of St Mark. For their joy a nearby ruin is called the Palace of Desdemona. Othello in the novel by Cinthio written in 1565 and in the tragedy by Shakespeare (Othello, the Moor of Venice ) written in 1603 is a fictional Venetian commander of Arab/African origin, as the reference to Moor is not precise enough for determining his ethnical origin.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

Porta da Mar (Sea Gate) According to the traditional account which portrays Sultan Selim II as a drunkard his decision to conquer Cyprus was caused by the desire to secure the supply of a particular wine which was produced there. In September 1570 Lala Mustafa Pacha, an Ottoman commander who had taken part in the failed siege of Malta in 1565, with an army of 80,000 landed on the island and easily conquered Nicosia; he then convinced the garrison of Cirenes (today's Kyrenia/Girne) to surrender, thus ensuring his army with a good port for supplies. He started laying siege to Famagusta by sending a tin box containing the head of Niccolò Dandolo, the Venetian commander of Nicosia, to Marcantonio Bragadin, the Governor of Cyprus; notwithstanding the gruesome warning Bragadin refused to surrender.

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

Porta da Mar: detail of the decoration; the

marbles come from the ancient town

of Salamis, four miles north of Famagusta;

the inscription says "Nicolao

Priolo Prefecto" and is dated 1496

The Ottoman cannon fired on the walls of Famagusta for several months but the defenders refused to surrender; they had managed to resist for the whole winter and with the arrival of the good season they had high hopes on receiving help from Venice. The Republic however preferred to make an alliance with Philip II, King of Spain and Pope Pius V; this had a delaying impact on

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

the gathering of a large fleet. In May 1571 Lala Mustafa Pacha launched a new massive attack with a larger army (thought to reach 200,000), but without effect. A new attempt was made by digging tunnels under the walls to place explosives. The losses among the Ottomans were very heavy. In July the attacks were repeated and the eldest son of the Pacha died in an assault which lasted 48 hours. At this point Lala Mustafa Pacha discouraged by the limited results achieved by his troops, stricken by the death of his son and ignoring the fact that the defendants had exhausted their gunpowder, offered extremely good terms for the surrender of Famagusta. The terms included: a) military honours; b) safe transfer of the troops to Candia; c) freedom for the rest of the population to remain or follow the troops. On August 1 the offer was accepted and the troops with some families embarked on Ottoman ships. On August 5, Bragadin and his lieutenants were ready to formally hand over the keys of Famagusta to Lala Mustafa Pacha. The meeting was accepted and at the beginning the Ottoman commander was very polite, but soon his mood changed and he ordered his guards to kill Bragadin's lieutenants. Bragadin had his nose and ears cut off and two weeks later was flayed alive. He was quartered and the skin filled with straw was sent to Constantinople to be shown around. Lala Mustafa Pacha became then known as Kara (black/dark) Lala Mustafa Pacha with black/dark being a reference to his cruelty. A few years later the Venetians smuggled the skin of Bragadin to Venice where it is now buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo. It is likely that Mustafa Pacha acted in this way in order to gloss over the fact that he had overestimated the remaining strength of the defendants. Two months later at the battle of Lepanto in Greece the Christian fleet defeated the Ottoman one. In the fight Ali Pacha, the commander of the Ottoman fleet, was killed and his head was placed on a pike and shown around as a trophy, thus twinning the horror of Bragadin's death. See the other pages of this section: Famagusta - The Churches Nicosia Cirenes

SEE THESE OTHER EXHIBITIONS (for a full list see my detailed list).

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Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta

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