CHAP VI

OF THE CITY

OF NICOSIA, THE CAPITAL OF THE KINGDOM OF CYPRUS.

THE city of Nicofia is fituated, as I have faid,

to the north of Larnic, and at the distance of twenty-five miles from it. Formerly it was known by the name of Letra. It was afterwards called Leucoton, from Leucon, fon of the first Ptolemy, who built its walls. The Greeks at prefent give it the name of Efcofia, the Italians that of Nicofia; and it is under the latter appellation that I fhall describe it. I muft not, however, omit to mention that, in many maps of the kingdom of Cyprus, Nicofia paffes for the ancient Thremitus ; but this is evidently an error, for that name was never given to it in hiflory. Thremitus is a confiderable village twelve miles from Nicofia. This village was formerly a city, which Richard king of England entirely destroyed.

Nicofia ftands in the centre of the ifland, in the middle of a vast plain; and is furrounded by hills and mountains, which bound it on all fides, at the distance of ten miles.

From the time of Conftantine the Great till 1567, the circumference of the city was nine miles but the Venetians found it too extenfive; and reduced it to three, because they thought that this would render the conqueft of it lefs eafy. They fortified

fortified it alfo with eleven baftions, and three gates all the reft they razed to the foundation. Nothing was refpected: they even demolished temples, palaces, and the most beautiful monuments; and the gloomy policy of these people foon reduced it to a heap of ruins. There are ftill to be seen here the foundations of a citadel, erected by King James the First of the Lufignans; and the remains of a conventual church, dedicated to St. Dominic, in which were buried several fovereigns; and, among others, Hugo IV. to whom Boccace dedicated his book on the logy of the gods.

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A river named Pedicus ran through the ancient city its mouth was near Famagufta; but in 1567 its course was changed. At prefent it is almost entirely dry; and the little water feen in it during. winter, refreshes the neighbouring plains.

The city of Nicofia, under the family of the Lufignans, was the refidence of the kings, and the feat of an archbishop. It contained a great many monafteries, three hundred churches Greek and Latin, and a number of palaces and public buildings.

Trifillius, who lived three hundred and twenty. eight years after Jefus Chrift, was one of its most diftinguifhed bishops. St. Jerome fpeaks of him as the most eloquent man of his age, and a character worthy the reign of Conftance. He wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs, and feveral other works.

In the beginning of the reign of the Lufignans, about the year 1212, Innocent III. erected Nicofia into an archbishopric, on he request of Alifia, wife to Hugo the first king of Cyprus.

Hugo of Tufcany was bishop of Nicofia. In 1268 he founded, in the neighbourhood of Pifa, a monaftery of regular canons of St. Auguftine;

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who were afterwards called the Fathers of Nicofia, from the name of the metropolis of their founder.

The archbishop is legate of the Holy See; a title granted him by Pope Alexander IV. with permiflion to dress like the cardinals, the hat only excepted.

In 1560 Pope Pius IV. fhared his right of election to this fee with the republic of Venice; it chose four fubjects, and the Pope one.

The city of Nicofia, and a great part of the kingdom, was in the fifteenth century in the hands of the Saracens. The king of Cyprus was carried prisoner to Egypt; and though his liberty and his crown were both reftored to him, he remained tributary to the conqueror. The Porte having afterwards triumphed over the Sultan, the kings of Cyprus ceased to pay tribute to the fovereign of Egypt, only to make the fame acknowledgment to the Grand Signior; and this they continued to do till the island was taken by the Venetians.

The year 1570 was fatal to the city of Nicofia, and to the whole ifland. Selim II. who then ruled the Ottoman empire, projected the conqueft of Cyprus. In the month of June of the fame year, Muftapha, the Turkish general, entered it, at the head of an hundred thousand infantry, and ten thoufand horfe. The neighbourhood of Nicofia was laid waste with fire and fword; and on the 26th of July a memorable fiege was commenced, which continued forty-five days. The inhabitants by their valour performed prodigies. They fuftained five different attacks with uncommon firmnefs; but, being at length reduced to the greatest extremity, the city was taken, by a general affault, on Sunday the 9th of September. Of fifty thoufand people who had retired within the walls for fhelter, twenty thoufand were maffacred, and the reft put in irons.

VOL. I.

In coming from the fouthern part of the island, you enter the city by the Julian gate, at prefent called that of Famagufta. This is certainly the moft beautiful of the whole three; and the workmanship of it would even do honour to our architects. Some years ago no person could enter it on horfeback: this prohibition was afterwards annulled in favour of Europeans; but the Greeks are obliged to difmount, or to give a piece of money to the guard. In the interior part of the gate there are different coats of arms on each fide, among which I faw fome that contained a cross: a circumftance rather fingular in a country where the Turks are at great pains to deftroy even the leaft traces of christianity. On the On the ramparts there are different pieces of ordnance ornamented with the arms of the republic of Venice. When the city was taken, they found in it two hundred and fifty cannons: they likewife brought fome along with them; and the reft were formed of the bells of the churches. This numerous artiltery, however, is far from being formidable, as it is in very bad order. I obferved one of a larger bore, which was broke to pieces by orders of the bafhaw, who had been greatly annoyed by it during the fiege: no one but a Turk would have thought of fuch kind of revenge. The gates of Paphos and Cerines, which are not yet finished, are inferior in point of beauty to that of Famagufta. At the time when Nicofia was attacked by the Selim, the inhabitants had not finished the digging of the ditches, and the repairs of the walls.

Between the gate of Famagufta and that of Paphos, there are feveral tombs raifed upon a baftion, where Soliman, the prefent governor, has conftructed a garden. a garden. One of thefe tombs, which is exceedingly beautiful, and of the finest

marble,

marble, is faid to be that of the officer who first planted the Ottoman ftandard on the walls. On this fide, the city fuftained several affaults.

The country around Nicofia is lively and animated. From the top of the ramparts may be feen a great number of hamlets and villages. The nearest of these are Caimachli; Panocaimachli; Palluriotifa, which was formerly within the circumference of the city; St. Marino, from which the place was moft vigorously attacked; St. Veneranda, where a battery was erected; St. Demitri, near which Mustapha's cavalry were encamped; Tracone, Altalaffa, and fome others, very populous and flourishing. The inhabitants do not confine themselves merely to agriculture; they fpin cotton and manufacture cloth, which they afterwards fell in the capital.

The most beautiful edifice here is, without doubt, the church of St. Sophia, where the kings of Cyprus were formerly crowned. It is built in the Gothic ftyle, and confifts of three large naves. It contains the tombs of the Lufignans, and of several ancient Cypriots and noble Venetians. As age has effaced the infcriptions, they are abfolutely unintelligible; and the figures on the ftones are fo much mutilated, that the features of them cannot now be distinguished.

The choir and the altars were deftroyed when the city was taken. This church then became the principal mofque; and Muftapha, the Turkish general, went to it, for the first time, to offer up thanks to the Almighty on the 14th of September, 1570. On the outfide it is ftill almost in the fame ftate, except that the towers are changed, and the coats of arms destroyed. I was there one Friday morning, when the governor paid it a visit on horseback, accompanied by four or five Turkish F 2 noblemen