Medieval Famagusta

In this piece I will dive headlong into the fray surrounding the identification of important surviving monuments in Famagusta. There is a long history of such forays by other scholars, but having reviewed as many as I could, I have not been entirely satisfied with their conclusions. It seems to me that there have been a more than a few assumptions made without the requisite support. But, in the end, we all assess the evidence and draw our own conclusions.

Famagusta Maritima: Mariners, Merchants, Pilgrims and Mercenaries
presents a collection of scholarly studies spanning the thousand year history of the port of Famagusta in Cyprus. This historic harbour city was at the heart of the Crusading Lusignan dynasty, a possession of both Genoa and Venice during the Renaissance, a port of the Ottoman Empire for three centuries, and in time, a strategic naval and intelligence node for the British Empire. It is a maritime space made famous by the realities of its extraordinary importance and influence, followed by its calamitous demise.

Contributors are: Michele Bacci, Lucie Bonato, Tomasz Borowski, Mike Carr, Pierre-Vincent Claverie, Dragos Cosmescu, Nicholas Coureas, Marko Kiessel, Antonio Musarra, William Spates, Asu Tozan, Ahmet Usta, and Michael Walsh.

Revised and significantly enhanced from the 2012 publication by the same author.

Absence of cut stone from Cypriot monuments lends itself to a legend that the British took stone and used it ‘in the Suez Canal’ - a story appearing on websites, in tourist literature, in academic footnote and archives. This article wrings substance from the legend, taking several approaches: archival searches in Cyprus and France, site visits in Cyprus and Egypt, personal interview and investigation of Cypriot archaeology and art history literatures. So far, there is no direct proof of Cypriot stone inside the Suez Canal or used in the structures that accompany it, but there is plenty of evidence for it.  Stone poaching and export from Cyprus, although ignominious, are a curious source of pride in Cypriot lore and this perspective adds a new dimension to formal understandings of stone reuse. Looking at the timing and material consumption of the Suez Canal project compared to local deficits in stone, this work shows the breadth of stone export generally headed to Port Saïd during the late Ottoman and British Colonial periods, and looks at the nature of Cypriot export including the agents of, and motivating forces behind it as well as efforts to stop or regulate the trade. Competition - between those who would preserve Cypriot monuments, and others who used them as quarries - reveals different perspectives on the value of stone, on the idea of heritage and identity, and the ways these notions change over time.

The present paper deals with the mural decoration of the 14th century church of Agios Georgios Exorinos in Famagusta, Cyprus, traditionally considered to be a Nestorian-rite church. The remaining frescoes bear Syriac inscriptions and are characterized by a distinctive juxtaposition of Arab Christian, Byzantine Palaiologan, and Italianate Gothic features. They can be considered to be the work of different artists working between ca. 1300 and the last decades of the century for a community of either Maronite or Melkite Syrians connected with the Frankish family of the Gibelet, ancient lords of Jbail (Lebanon).

The history of the Church of St. Mary or literally in Armenian, the Holy Mother of God, Theotokos, the medieval and post medieval Armenian community in Famagusta, Cyprus is presented, hoping it might contribute to the work of preserving and restoring the church and its fresco cycle that miraculously survived centuries of abandonment and neglect. There are no specific records relating to the circumstances or the date of the church’s construction in Armenian sources. Latin documents, however, are quite explicit. According to a papal bull of 1311, the church’s construction had recently started.

Mağusa’nın tarihsel derinliğine medeniyet perspektifinden baktığımız zaman oldukça görkemli bir konuma sahip olduğunu görürüz. Antik dönemlerden Ortaçağ’a, oradan da Rönesans’a Mağusa kentinin mimarisi ve yaşam standartlarıyla Ortadoğu ve Avrupa arasında azımsanmayacak bir kentsoyluluk karakterine sahip olduğunu görürüz. Osmanlı Padişahlığının adayı fethinden sonra periferileşen ve hatta bir sürgün kentine dönüşen Mağusa ihtişamını yitirmişti. İngiliz Koloni döneminde ise bir liman kenti olarak işlev görürken kültürel yaşamın kentsel düzeyde şekil aldığına tanık olamıyoruz.

The present paper investigates the ways in which Late Medieval pilgrims came to locate a number of holy sites associated with Saint Catherine's life and martyrdom in places other than her major shrine on Mount Sinai. Emphasis is laid especially on the interaction between the latter and the memorial places which started being worshipped in Alexandria, the Cypriot port-town of Famagusta, and the Franciscan Chapel of Saint Catherine close to the Nativity church in Bethlehem.

This article discusses and interprets the development, urban topography and main signifiers of the port city of Famagusta, Cyprus between the 14th and 16th centuries. It traces the city’s three distinct patterns of development, directly paralleling the three administrations in the years constituting the late Lusignan, Genoese and Venetian periods.

This study focuses on the figure of Giovanni Matteo Bembo and, especially, on his relationship with the island of Cyprus. Bembo was a learned Venetian aristocrat and nephew of Cardinal Pietro, whose famous Asolani take place at the court of Caterina Cornaro, former queen of Cyprus. Giovanni Matteo Bembo had a long and successful career, both as a military man and as an administrator of the Venetian possessions on the Italian mainland and overseas. He was sent to Cyprus with different appointments, including that of Captain of Famagusta from 1546 to 1548, during which time he was in charge of the most important military stronghold of the island. While in Famagusta he promoted a sophisticated plan of urban renewal, which entailed major works at the city walls, the building of a new aqueduct and the establishment of a series of monuments in the main square of the city. Among these were two granite columns and a marble sarcophagus that, according to contemporary sources, was said to be the ancient tomb of Venus, first queen of Cyprus. The article concludes by offering a preliminary explanation of the political and ideological motivations underlying the apparently bizarre interpretation of this ancient artefact..

Abstract / Özet
This paper reports on the preliminary results of an ongoing documentation project (SGNC: Ship Graffiti of North Cyprus) of medieval graffiti, particularly those portraying ships etched on historic monuments in the northern part of Cyprus. The urgency of identifying and scientifically documenting these ship graffiti was necessary due to their vulnerable nature and apparent threats infringing on them. Ship graffiti, scratched on thin plaster, on frescoes in churches, or on stone ashlar block surfaces of monuments have always been subject to damage by environmental and human factors. The primary goal of the project is to examine all monuments dating from the 12th to 16th centuries (thus culturally belonging to the Lusignan, Venetian and Ottoman periods), to photograph and document as much information as possible about the unknown and unpublished/undocumented ship graffiti before they are lost. Previously recorded and published ship graffiti have also been re-documented. In many cases more ship graffiti were found which previous researchers had overlooked. Initial surveys of historic monuments were carried out in Famagusta and later in Kyrenia and Nicosia. Upon discovery, photographic recording of these ship graffiti, along with their measurements and written descriptions comprising their location and condition were part of the standard documentation process. In this paper, interim results of this project and some examples will be presented.

Through the study of influence in Cypriot Architecture, we acquire the important part of Gothic art that grew on the island. This article isn’t exhaustive on a topic already wellstudied, but it highlights the medieval heritage in a city where heritage conservation is a political issue.

Famagusta Maritima: Mariners, Merchants, Pilgrims and Mercenaries
presents a collection of scholarly studies spanning the thousand year history of the port of Famagusta in Cyprus. This historic harbour city was at the heart of the Crusading Lusignan dynasty, a possession of both Genoa and Venice during the Renaissance, a port of the Ottoman Empire for three centuries, and in time, a strategic naval and intelligence node for the British Empire. It is a maritime space made famous by the realities of its extraordinary importance and influence, followed by its calamitous demise.

Contributors are: Michele Bacci, Lucie Bonato, Tomasz Borowski, Mike Carr, Pierre-Vincent Claverie, Dragos Cosmescu, Nicholas Coureas, Marko Kiessel, Antonio Musarra, William Spates, Asu Tozan, Ahmet Usta, and Michael Walsh.

Published in: Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia, ed. by A.C.S. Peacock, Bruno De Nicola and Sara Nur Yıldız, all at the University of St Andrews, UK. Ashgate 2015 (http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&isbn=9781472448637&lang=cy-gb)

The ports and coastal zones constituted the most important points of interaction between the interior of Anatolia and the Mediterranean world; only along the 600 km long coast of Lycia and Pamphylia, for instance, medieval sources list almost 100 ports and landing places.  With the (anew) advance of the Seljuks towards the coast (conquest of Attaleia/Antalya in 1207, conquest of Sinope in 1214) and the increasing presence of Italian merchants in the harbours of the Aegean, the Black Sea and the Levant, maritime Asia Minor became a zone of intensive contacts between Byzantines (after 1204 in the exile realms of Nicaea and Trebizond), Armenians (in the Kingdom of Cilicia), Turks, Persians and Arabs (in the Sultanate of Konya) and “Latins” respectively “Franks”, thus also between Orthodox, Oriental and Western Churches as well as Islam (in its various denominations). With the fragmentation of Seljuk central power after the defeat against the Mongols in 1243 into various Emirates and their expansion especially into Western Asia Minor towards the Aegean and the establishment of Italian colonies (including “Catholic” bishoprics) in coastal towns and offshore islands (e. g. the Genoese on Chios and in Phokaia/Foça) and of the Knights Hospitallers on Rhodes, the number of zones of interaction, but also conflict increased (relocation of crusading efforts towards the Aegean in the 14th century, for instance). At the same time, Venetians and Genoese integrated all these locations and regions as hubs and nodes into their commercial networks and into the late medieval “World System”.  With the Ottoman Expansion, these territories were absorbed into one imperial framework once more (as it has existed under Byzantine rule until the 11th century), which finally also included the remaining western colonies (Rhodes in 1522/1523, Chios in 1566, Cyprus in 1571). During this period, “no other region of Europe or the Mediterranean became a cynosure of so many ethnicities in such a small place”.
Some of these aspects, such as the intensive trade between Venetian Crete and the Emirates in South-western Anatolia or the Genoese and the Turks in the 14th and 15th century , the military conflict between Crusaders and Turks in the Aegean  or the establishment of Latin monastic communities and bishoprics in the region  have already been analysed in greater detail. The same is true for aspects of religious transformations (especially conversions to Islam) in the region in the early modern period  as well as in late medieval centuries, but less so for maritime aspects of the organisation, identity and dynamics of various religious groups.  A view from the sea towards the coasts of Anatolia also opens a new perspective away from a “continental” overlapping of competing territorial claims towards a sum of potential nodal points within the late medieval network of socioeconomic interactions, which often modified or even overcame lines of religious, ethnic or political differentiation.
As we demonstrate in this paper, there existed various and manifold channels of encounters across religious border in maritime Asia Minor; their systematic survey and mapping contributes to a further embedding of the processes of political, economic and religious transformation in Anatolia in these centuries within the late medieval Mediterranean and Islamic world, complementary to already existing projects just as “The Islamisation of Anatolia” (https://www.islam-anatolia.ac.uk/).

On a number of late Medieval holy sites in the Eastern Mediterranean which were simultaneously visited and worshipped by different religious groups, such as Muslims and Christians, or Latins and Greeks. It includes informations about shrines in Anatolia and Cyprus, especially the tomb of Saint Catherine and the Madonna della Cava in Famagusta, and the church of the Holy Virgin at Hagia Napa.

Kıbrıs adasının doğusunda, deniz kıyısında yer alan Gazimağusa kentinin Kale içi olarak anılan bölgesinde yer alan antik yapıların isimleri,  ne amaçla yapıldıkları ve kimler tarafından yapıldıkları eldeki tarih kayıtlarına veya tarihimizi içeren belgelerin içeriğine göre tespit edilebilmekte, çoğu zaman ise eldeki tarih kitaplarının azlığı veya kayıtların yetersiz olması nedeni ile de bu bilgiler elde edilememekte veya yanıltıcı bilgiler ile yanlış isimler ve tanımlar kullanılmaktadır. Gazimağusa antik kenti olarak bilinen, yerel halk arasında “Sur içi”, İngilizce’de “Old town” olarak tanımlanan kale içindeki, “Yeni Kapı” adlı çıkış kapısından 50 m. evvel sol tarafta, Türk Gücü spor klübü binasının 30 m. kuzey batısında yer alan, harabe halindeki Azize Fotu (Ayia Fotu) kilisesi veya İngilizce “Ayia Photou Underground Church” olarak tanımlanan kilise bu tür yanlışlıkların veya iyi araştırılmadan isimlendirmenin kurbanı olmuş ve bu nedenle de gerçek ismi ve amacı bir türlü gün ışığına çıkamamıştır. KKTC.  İskan  Dairesi  Harita  Şubesi’nin  1995  yılında  çıkarmış  olduğu  Gazimağusa Suriçi plânında da bu kilise ile ilgili bilgiler yer almakta ve yan yana, iki adet Azize Fotu (Ayio Photou) Kilisesi görülmektedir. Her iki kilisenin de adlarının aynı olamayacağına göre, gerçekte bir tanesinin ve özellikle de, bir kısmı yer altında olan kuzeydeki kilisenin adının ‘Aziz Dominik Kilisesi’ ve 5 metre güneyinde bulunan kalıntının da oraya konan tabelada yazdığı gibi Azize Fotu  (Ayios Fotu)  olması gerekmektedir.
Bu araştırma, resmi kayıtlara geçmiş bu tarihsel yanlışlığa dikkat çekmek amacı ile yapılmıştır.

Emergency Interventions to Protect Famagusta’s Imperiled Medieval Murals

https://www.facebook.com/events/1166409726747143/

The neglect that Famagusta’s cultural heritage has suffered for over four decades as a result of the ‘Cyprus Problem’ is well known. My presentation and documentary film (26 minutes - made by Dan Frodsham) nevertheless focus strongly on the emergency stabilisation work that was carried out between 2012-2016, principally on the 14th century murals in the Armenian church in the Syrian quarter of the city. This interdisciplinary project, funded by the World Monuments Fund and led by Nanyang Technological University Singapore, demonstrated clearly the potential that yet exists for art historians specialising in the Medieval eastern Mediterranean, conservators who are prepared to confront the challenge of cement removal from delicate centuries-old plasters, and scholars who are prepared to embrace high-level international and multi-disciplinary collaborations to protect endangered works of art in this politically sensitive region. It is my contention that if these precious murals can be ‘detached’ from the political and legal impasse which has been so detrimental to their welfare, there is yet much hope for this important, and largely neglected, chapter in Cypriot art history.  The presentation / screening is also timed to coincide with the launch of my latest edited collection The Armenian Church of Famagusta and the Complexity of Cypriot Heritage (Palgrave, 2017).

For nearly four decades the well-known 'Cyprus Problem' has resulted in the political impasse surrounding the city of Famagusta's Medieval, Renaissance and Ottoman heritage. Professor Walsh offers an alternative route to education and intervention through technological advances and NGOs, as put forth in a pilot project in partnership with the local municipality of Famagusta, the World Monuments Fund, and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). While raising recognition and funds to protect Famagusta's delicate heritage, this five-year book and film project seeks to Document endangered heritage; Develop techniques for visualization and conservation; Create 3D modeling, GPS mapping, data recognition and visualization methods to recreate historic spaces in a scholarly manner; Refine educational methodologies for inculcating the importance of cultural heritage in children while promoting tolerance; and Propose 'shared' cultural heritage in a 'shared' virtual space, as a step towards political reconciliation. M.A. in Museum Studies |

This article is concerned with the 14th century church of St. Anne’s in the historic walled city of Famagusta, Cyprus, as a site for transdisciplinary investigation embedded in, interrogated by, and disseminated via, digital space. The principal tool to create the foundational model and database of this historic structure was HBIM (Historic Building Information Modelling), beyond which further experiments were conducted in Padua and Singapore into the scholarly and pedagogical potential of VR, AR, and curated 4D interactive historic spaces. Such non-invasive systems of analysis are most welcome in a city where the legalities of conducting work ‘in the field’ are complicated by political and economic considerations.

In recent decades, theories of multiplicity and hybridity have been proposed and applied towards the reimagining and reconstituting of a number of historical narratives that had been carefully constructed among (and because of) imperial, colonial or acculturative contexts. Sociology and anthropology, art and architectural history, and a host of other disciplines, have used these theories to reappraise issues of ethnic, linguistic and visual heritage, of cultural conflict and of understanding. This essay will attempt a similar study and discussion while engaging the scale of a complete city.

Focusing on comprehending the urban development and physical disposition of the city of Famagusta, the largest port of Cyprus between the early fourteenth and late sixteenth centuries, questions of multiplicity and hybridity will be posed against a unique urban context of multiple identities and constructed narratives. The stories and streetscapes of Famagusta become a significant chapter of a larger urban history book, as they are studied and interpreted as inseparable pieces in a line of other late medieval fabrics in the Eastern Mediterranean such as those of Jerusalem, Tyre, Acre, Tripoli and Nicosia.

How can issues of multiplicity and hybridity be transposed, via urban terms, into the constructed landscape of Famagusta? How can this landscape be simultaneously understood in late medieval geographic, topographic, cultural, artistic, religious and economic terms? Does this understanding place the Cypriot port apart from other cities, and if so, in which ways, physical, constructed or other, does this occur? Can Famagusta be defined as a further development of a mainstream regional urban model lineage, an exception to that lineage, or even the swan song of that lineage?

The walled city of Famagusta, Cyprus, with its French Gothic churches, exquisite 14th-century frescoes, towering Venetian walls, domed Ottoman hamams, and majestic British Imperial architecture, should be a UNESCO World Heritage Site – but it is not. Instead, as a result of the military intervention in 1974, and the ensuing political stalemate that exists to this day, the city and its heritage have become dangerously isolated, its architectural and art-historical treasures within its walls virtually forgotten.

Following the successful nomination of Famagusta to the World Monuments Fund (WMF) Watch List in 2008 and 2010, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (with the WMF and the Famagusta Municipality) led a series of international efforts to protect, stabilize and study Famagusta’s irreplaceable heritage, and in particular its extant murals. This seminar will discuss this initiative, exploring how, in 2015, the United Nations took over the NTU / WMF led project, indicating strongly a welcome move towards a recognition of international responsibility to protect universal heritage in post-conflict zones. The presentation will include the screening of Dan Frodsham's documentary film produced to highlight the relationship between culture and politics, and the interface between art history and technology.

Famagusta, the largest port of Renaissance Cyprus, first developed its socio-urban fabric in the early 1200s, largely as a result of the collapsing Crusader Kingdoms in the Levante. In the 13th and 14th centu-ries the city transformed into one of the Mediterranean’s grandest emporia, where Italian merchants and bankers interacted daily with pilgrims, artists and refugees from Europe and beyond. The subsequent rules of Famagusta by Genoa and Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries resulted in significant changes to the city’s sociocultural strata, with the maritime republics further shaping, and at times unraveling, their ur-ban character and cohesion.

This presentation attempts an interpretation of merchant networks in Famagusta as important, if not essential, agents for the cultural and physical development of the city. A four-part structure largely following the centuries mentioned engages changes in the city’s artistic, architectural and urban fabric. The presentation hopes to evidence that Italian Merchants impacted much more than the economy and trade of Famagusta, but rather became a catalyst for the development of its complex urban and cultural structure of multiple and constantly negotiated identities.