last time The best place from which to survey the outside of the cathedral is the simple, almost rustic garden café, residing in a fine old two - storeyed crenellated building with Gothic windows that was once the Chapter House, and reached by walking between the cathedral and the Bedestan. This quiet spot has a superb view of the cathedral"s south wall with its flying buttresses, and gives the leisure to appreciate the soft meloow golden stone, harmonizing against the background of the green cypress trees and the deep blue sky.French craftsman began work on the construction of the cathedral in 1209 and, thanks to the stability of its flying buttresses, it still stands today despite the earthquakes of the 15th, 16th and 18th centuries. The roof is flat, a concession to the geography and climate of the Orient, but a curiosity in a building which in all other respects resembles the great Gothic cathedrals of France.The cathedral of St. Sophia is, architecturally, the most important monument in Lefko?a, with its superb carving and sculpture in the triple-portalled porch and the colossal high west window. The twin towers were never completed, a fact which made them serve admirably as foundations for the two tall Ottomon minarets added by the Turks after 1571. In appearance these additions, labeled incongruous by purists, have been likened to candles with their extinguishers on.Today, as it has done for more than the last 400 years, the principal mosque, and the greatest celebrations of the two major Muslim festivals, are conducted here. Its name change from Aya Sofya Camii only took place in 1954, when the mufti, the religious head of the Muslims of the island, renamed it the Selimiye Camii in honour of Selim II, the sultan in whose reign Cyprus was conquered by the Turks. Since 1959 the muezzin has been spared the climb up 170 steps to the minaret gallery every day, five times a day, to summon the faithful to prayed, by the introduction of an automatic recording played through a loudspeaker. The mosque is open and can be visited any time, though it is best to avoid the midday prayers on a Friday. During other daily prayer times you can visit but must keep silent. As in all mosques, shoes must be removed at the entrance. No special dress is required, as Turkish Cypriots take a much more relaxed view of bare heads and arms. Inside, the whitewashed interior seems stark, but the beauty of the proportions in the high pillared nave is if anything enhanced by the absence of decoration.
Colour comes in the form of the carpets, predominantly reds and greens, none older than this century, and all of them orientated towards Mecca. This direction is indicated by the highly colourful mihrab or prayer niche in the southern wall. The green wooden structure in the centre of the nave is the prayer platform where the prayer leader or imam stands during services, and the closed lattice gallery in the north transept is where the women, the few who come to the mosque, are penned. Unlike churches, where the bulk of the congregation tends to be female, worshippers in mosque are almost always men.All Christian symbols and decorations were stripper from the cathedral, inside and out, when the Turks conquered Lefko?a in 1570, save for one or two tombstones hidden underneath the carpets at the far end of the cathedral. The Turkish commanded, Mustapha Pasha, even had the graves opened and the bones scattered randomly.Venetian historians wrote many such accounts, none of which enhanced the Turks"reputation for clemency. The Ottomans had already taken Syria, Egypt, Rhodes and Constantinople before they turned to Cyprus. With a huge fleet and over 100,000 men, they landed at Limassol which they quickly pillaged and burnt, before moving on to Lefko?a, the capital.
Hearing of the advance, the terrified government gathered the men, women and children within the walls. The Venetian governor at the time was one Nicola Dandolo, "a man whose ineptitude was so apparent, his supineness so glaring that it verged on treachery", as one historian wrote. The odds were hopeless. Within the walls were 76,000, of whom only 11,000 were capable of fighting. The strength of the walls was such, however, that the siege lasted 48 days before the city fell. In the marketplace of Lefko?a a funeral pyre was made of the old, the infirm and any others, who were unsuitable as slaves, and the acrid smoke filled the city for days. When the Ottoman ships returned to Constantinople, they were bulging with as many slaves and as much gold and jewels as they had been able to cram aboard. Over 20,000 Turkish soldiers were left behind to settle on the island, and more were subsequently encouraged to emigrate from the mainland.
The Turks retained control of the island for the next three centuries, but despite much mismanagement, along with nature"s contributions of famine, drought, and plague, there were some important developments. The Greeks were given more autonomy than they had ever enjoyed under any previous ruler. The feudal system imposed under the Lusignans and perpetuated under the Venetians, in which the peasants were fountains distributed all over the cities for the first time. A few are still in use today. The Turks rarely went in for building fancy, self-glorifying edifices like Roman triumphal arches or Egyptian pyramids. Their legacy lay in social welfare buildings, like aqueducts, mosques, tekkes, caravanserais, schools, libraries and baths.No attempt was made to impose Islam on the native population.
The Latin Catholic priests were expelled, and the Greek Orthodox Church was restored.
NorthCyprus Hotels The Greeks in fact tore down many Latin Gothic churches and the remainder were turned into mosques or stables. The Turks gave the Orthodox archbishop the responsibility for collecting taxes from both Greek and Turkish elements of the population, and in return, the Church was itself exempt from any tax it collected in excess of the tribute specified. It was from this practice that the habit was established of the archbishop being regarded as the de facto head of the Greek Cypriots, a role which was frequently misused from then until Archbishop Makarios , under whom the Cypriot Church overreached itself for the.