NICOSIA

NICOSIA

Once the ancient kingdom of Ledra, Lefkosa flourished when it become the capital of the Lusignans. The Old Town is surrounded by a star shaped wall of about three miles in circumference, which was further fortified by the Venetians in 1567, and flanked by eleven Bastions. The Selimiye Mosque, formerly St Sophia Cathedral, is the earliest and perhaps the finest of the Lusignan churches, commissioned by the Queen Alix Of Champagne, wife of Hugues I, and build in the style of the cathedrals of Rouen and Chartres. In the 16th Century it was transformed into a mosque with the addition of two minarets.