Monday November 20th - Famagusta and nearby

We had to be up early today and in the coach by 9 for a long day of visits. Our first visit to the area near Famagusta was to the monastery and tomb of St Barnabas. 

St Barnabas was one of the founders of the independent Greek Orthodox church, and is the patron saint of Cyprus. He was originally a Jew, born on Cyprus, and went to Jerusalem to continue his education, where he converted to Christianity in 33AD. He was appointed archbishop of Salamis and returned to Cyprus in 45AD, intending to convert the Jews of Cyprus. This did not work too well, and during a second visit to the island he was imprisioned in a synagogue and later stoned to death. His followers secretly buried his body, and the grave was forgotten until it was discovered again in the 5th century AD. The Byzantine emperor at the time had a church built on the spot where the grave was discovered. This church was badly damaged in Arab raids in the 7th century, and the current church and monastery date from the 1750s. The number of monks gradually reduced over the years, and by the 1950s there were only 3 left. They continued to take care of the church and monastery until 1974, but were then obliged to retire. Nowadays the Greek Orthodox Church takes care of the site because it is so important. 

The church has now become an icon museum.

Most of the icons were painted by the monks, and, as far as I could see, the majority dated from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The monastery is very attractive.

It now houses an archaeological collection of finds from the local area, and is quite extensive. 

The earliest finds are from the Neolithic and extend through the Bronze Age to classical and then Roman times. This was my favourite object.

This Sphinx is from the Classical period, 475 - 325 BC

About 100 yards from the monastery, there is a small mausoleum built on the spot where the saint's remains were discovered. There are 14 steps which take you down to the cave under the building where the body of St Barnabas was hidden by his friends. We paid a visit to that too.

After this, the coach took us to the ruins of the city of Salamis, which aren’t far away. (This Salamis is not to be confused with the Salamis in Attic Greece, where there was the famous naval battle between the Greeks and Persians in 450BC, which took place between the Greek mainland and the island of Salamis in the Saronic Gulf near Athens)

The earliest archeological finds from this area date back to the 11th century BC, and though our guide told us there is a foundation myth which says that the founder of Salamis is said to be Teucer, son of Telamon, who could not return home after the Trojan war because he had failed to avenge his brother Ajax, there is no evidence to support this foundation myth.

The site is extremely extremely extensive, our guide says it is actually bigger than Ephesus, but not much of it has been excavated. Because the city was so extensive and in use for so long, the ruins we saw were Roman, rather than anything earlier. The cultural centre of Salamis during the Roman period was situated in the north part of the city, where a gymnasium, theatre, amphitheatre, stadium and public baths have been excavated. As well as the baths, there are public latrines (for 44 users), various little bits of mosaic, a harbour wall, a Hellenistic and a Roman agora and a temple of Zeus. We saw the theatre, the amphitheatre, the gymnasium, the public baths and (of course) the latrines.

The theatre was originally enormous and could seat 15000 people, as it was considerably higher than it is today.

As with the earlier theatre we saw at Soli, this theatre was originally Greek and converted by the Romans, and has been extensively restored. It is still in use today for various Famagusta festivals.

There is a wide road leading up to the gymnasium

The columns seen here are not necessarily the ones that belonged here, they have been erected to demonstrate the general appearance of the area.

The gymnasium was the usual open area, surrounded by colonnades, of which not much remains. Adjacent to this, we saw the Roman baths with various plunge pools

You can still see the hypocaust under the floor of the hot room, and there are a few remaining mosaics

Somewhat disappointingly, the 44 seat latrine did not actually have any seats remaining in it

The marble seats would have been on top of the supports you can see in the photo. What you can’t see in this area is that there were two channels for water, a lower one which was quite deep to carry away the waste, and an upper one nearer the seat level with water you could use to clean yourself with. I wasn't familiar with this idea, having always been told that the Romans used a sponge on a stick.

 After the visit to Salamis, we drove to Famagusta which is nearby. Famagusta was founded around 274 BC, after the serious damage to Salamis by an earthquake, but it was quite small. Later, as a result of the gradual evacuation of Salamis due to the Arab invasion, it developed into a small port.

After 1192, when the Lusignans ruled Cyprus, Famagusta increased in importance due to its natural harbour and the fact that the Lusignan rulers built walls that protected its inner town. Its population increased and by the 13th century the town had become a centre of commerce for both the East and West. An influx of Christian refugees fleeing the downfall of Acre in Palestine in 1291 transformed it from a small town into one of the richest cities in Christendom.

In 1489, Famagusta fell under Venetian rule. Just as in Kyrenia and Nicosia, the Venetians strengthened the walls and changed the shape of the towers from square to circular to suit more modern artillery.

We drove into the old city past the walls, which are quite extensive, and made our way to the Othello Castle. There seem to be two different stories about this name. One is that Shakespeare’s play Othello which is believed to be written in 1603 might have taken its name from this castle. Another is that the castle gets its name from the play. In the play Othello the Moor was a Venetian commander, sent by his masters to Cyprus, where "The fortitude of the place is well known to you."  From Act II onwards, the play is simply set in 'A seaport in Cyprus' and also in 'A hall in the castle'.

We crossed what had once been the moat, which is shown in my photo above. It was drained in 1900 to help prevent malaria. We entered by the main gate, which is adorned by the Lion of St Mark and the date 1492.

A dark tunnel leads you into the castle courtyard is not nearly as large as Kyrenia Castle.

This is a view of the courtyard from the walls above. At the far side of the courtyard is the Great Hall, which is vaulted and gothic.

We climbed the walls for views of the port and of the old city.

The ruins you can see are those of the former Royal Palace. On its left is the former cathedral of St Nicolas, which was turned into a mosque when Cyprus came under Ottoman rule. We weren't  able to go into the mosque because of prayers taking place, but this is the main door.

You can see it is once again a typical French Gothic cathedral. It is the largest medieval building in Famagusta. It was built between 1298 and 1312 and was consecrated in 1328. The Lusignan rulers of Cyprus would be crowned as Kings of Cyprus in the St Sophia Cathedral  in Nicosia (which we saw on Saturday) and then crowned as Kings of Jerusalem in the St Nicholas Cathedral here in Famagusta. Our guide said that this was the significance of the crown you can see on the door. Of course, by the this period, the Lusignans were only using the title of King of Jerusalem, since Jerusalem was being ruled by the Ottomans.

We were pretty exhausted by the time, and needed to sit down and to eat. By the time we had done this, it was 3 o’clock and time to get back into the coach. We just had time for a brief look at Varosha, which was originally a lively and very luxurious resort nearby which was much frequented by celebrities but was abandoned during the war in 1974. It is now just a ghost town.

Then we set off on the journey back to the hotel, for final packing and the farewell dinner. Tomorrow will be another day of travel as we make our way home.