The document summarizes the history of the fortifications of Famagusta, Cyprus. It details how the Venetians strengthened the walls in the 15th century to withstand cannon fire, adding massive round towers and a deep moat. The walls fell to the Ottomans in 1571 after withstanding a long siege, during which the commander Bragadin was brutally flayed alive after the city's surrender. The Christian navy later defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto.

1. 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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2. Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta
Map of the
Eastern Mediterranean
Sea and enlargement
showing Cyprus and the
three towns covered in
this section. You may
What's New! wish to see maps with
lists of locations
Detailed Sitemap covered in this website
in Turkey , Syria and Greece
All images © by Roberto
Piperno, owner of the The Lusignans ruled Cyprus for nearly three centuries and they did so by introducing the
domain. Write to feudal system existing in western Europe which meant serfage for the Greek population of the
romapip@quipo.it. Text island. In the XIVth century the Lusignans had to face the growing influence of Venice and Genoa
edited by Rosamie Moore. in the Levant and they usually sided with the Venetians; in 1373 the Genoese in retaliation
Page revised in August occupied Famagusta, the main port of the island.
2011. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. Caterina's Bequest - The Walls of Famagusta
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