Places to see in North Nicosia (Lefkoşa)

The walled city: Venetian walls, Kyrenia Gate and the Venetian Column

According to Visit North Cyprus, the Venetians began the present walls of Nicosia in 1567, to plans by the engineers Giulio Savorgnano and Francesco Barbaro, and the city was taken by Ottoman forces in 1570 before the work was complete. The same source describes eleven pentagon-shaped bastions and three gates, and says the Lusignan walls and a number of palaces, churches and monasteries were demolished to clear the line. Its Nicosia page gives the length of the wall as 4.5 km.

The city inside the walls is divided. Five bastions are on the Turkish Cypriot side and one is under United Nations control, according to Visit North Cyprus; the rest of the circuit lies on the Greek Cypriot side. A 2020 FORTMED conference paper by Zehra Ongul, held in the Eastern Mediterranean University repository, records that in 1931 the walls around Kyrenia Gate were cut back so that traffic could pass on both sides of the gate.

The Ledra Street/Lokmacı crossing in the old commercial centre connects the two sides; Al Jazeera reported on 4 April 2008 that it was the sixth crossing opened on the island since April 2003. Rules on who may cross and with which documents are covered on the government, districts and crossings page, not here.

Mosques and churches

According to Visit North Cyprus, Selimiye Mosque began as the Latin Cathedral of Saint Sophia, whose foundation stone was laid in 1209; it was consecrated in 1326 and became a mosque after the Ottoman capture of the city in 1570, with the first Friday prayer on 15 September. The name Selimiye dates from 1954. Cyprus Mail reported on 8 May 2025 that the mosque had reopened after five years of renovation.

Several other mosques in the walled city stand on or incorporate medieval churches. Visit North Cyprus describes Haydarpaşa Mosque as the 14th-century Lusignan church of St Catherine, and Yeni Cami as a later mosque built beside the ruins of a converted Gothic church. These are working places of worship; Visit North Cyprus asks visitors to remove shoes, dress modestly and avoid prayer times.

Christian heritage also remains in the northern part of the walled city. The European Heritage Awards describe the restored Armenian church and monastery in the Arab Ahmet quarter as a 14th-century Gothic building, and the Bedesten, described in the next section, was first built as a church.

Hans, markets, baths and old quarters

According to Visit North Cyprus, the Ottomans built Büyük Han in 1572, modelled on the Koza Han in Bursa, under Muzaffer Pasha, the first Ottoman governor of Cyprus. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi entry adds that no inscription gives an exact date and that it was also known as the Alâiyeliler Hanı and Karamanlılar Hanı. The smaller Kumarcılar Hanı nearby is dated by Visit North Cyprus to the late 17th century.

The Bedesten and the Bandabulya market lie between the hans and Selimiye Mosque. Visit North Cyprus says the Bedesten served as a covered market in the Ottoman period and reopened in November 2009 as a venue and exhibition space; it says the current Bandabulya building dates from 1930 to 1932 and reopened in June 2012.

BRT reported that the Büyük Hamam reopened on 4 December 2024 after restoration led by the Cyprus Vakıflar Administration (Evkaf). Outside the hans, the Samanbahçe houses are an example of early 20th-century housing inside the walls, according to Evkaf. A few Lefkoşa stops suited to children are listed on the family days out page.

Museums run by the Department of Antiquities and Museums

The Department of Antiquities and Museums (Eski Eserler ve Müzeler Dairesi) lists eight museums and sites in the Lefkoşa region: the Mevlevi Museum, Derviş Paşa Mansion, the Lusignan House, the Lapidary Museum, the Bedesten Medieval Tombstones Museum, Saçaklı Ev, the Turkish Cypriot History, Culture and National Struggle Museum and the Museum of Barbarism. The Department publishes visiting hours separately; this page does not repeat them.

Two of the museums present the period from 1963 to 1974 from the Turkish Cypriot perspective. Their names and descriptions here are those used by the Department; Greek Cypriot accounts of the same period differ, and the island's history is covered on the About North Cyprus guide.