Famagusta: City Walls and Historic Buildings

Famagusta combines a walled Old Town with a dense succession of historic buildings: gates and bastions define the fortifications, while churches and mosques tell of different religious and architectural traditions. When planning your stay, you can use the city walls as a point of reference and focus on individual buildings. This lets you tailor your visit either to the fortifications and their routes or to the history of specific churches, gates and bastions.

Explore the City Walls on Foot

Visitors can walk along extensive sections of the fortifications in the walled Old Town. A three-kilometre walk runs along and through the Venetian walls, which enclose the entire ancient city of Famagusta. Walks along the city walls often begin at the southern end, near Rivettina Bastion—a useful reference point for the route of the walls in the south.

Specific waypoints are also identified for individual sections: stairs lead up to the ramparts; from there, visitors can continue via Arsenal to the original Sea Gate, Porta del Mare. This makes it possible to understand the fortifications not only as a continuous line of walls, but also in terms of their bastions and gates. If you want to visit individual sites, check current visiting arrangements in advance.

Bastions, Gates and Views

Othello’s Castle was restored in 2014 and reopened to the public on 3 July 2015. Stairs lead from the courtyard to the ramparts, which offer views of the old and modern harbours. The bastion is a useful reference point if you want to take in the fortifications and the harbour.

Within the city walls, Arsenal Bastion houses a tomb containing the remains of a martyr. The ethnographic and archaeological Canbulat Museum is also located there. Its collection includes Ottoman artillery and uniforms, ancient objects and Venetian ceramics. Porta del Mare is one of the two original entrances to the walled Old Town. The gate has an iron portcullis from the Venetian period that opens towards the sea-facing side of the city walls.

Martinengo Bastion, also known as Tophane, is located in the north-western corner of the walled Old Town. Together with Rivettina Bastion to the south, it helps distinguish locations along the extensive fortifications. The names are particularly useful if you want to plan a walk around a specific section of the city walls.

Churches and Architectural History

Famagusta’s religious buildings represent different traditions. The main entrance to Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque is at the western end of the building, on the east side of Namik Kemal Square in the city centre. St. George of the Greeks served as the cathedral of the Greek Orthodox community in the Middle Ages. Ganchvor Sourp Asdvadzadzin is an Armenian Apostolic church within the walled Old Town. Ayia Zone is one of the three remaining Byzantine churches in south-east Famagusta.

The history of St. Peter and St. Paul can also be understood through specific details. The foundations of the original church were laid during the reign of Peter I of the House of Lusignan (1358–1369). Simon Nostrano, a merchant from Famagusta, financed the original church with one third of the profits from a single voyage to Syria.

Remains of the Venetian palace have survived and are considered a rare example of Renaissance architecture in Cyprus. This architectural feature adds another facet to Famagusta’s architectural history alongside its religious buildings and fortifications.

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For the main travel overview: Famagusta.