Ledra Street, from Eleftheria Square to the Green Line

If you only have an afternoon in Nicosia, Ledra Street is where I’d start. It’s an ordinary shopping street until you reach the end and find a checkpoint. Usual shop hours, and the island’s other big shopping street, Anexartisias in Limassol, are in shopping in Cyprus. Here’s what’s on it, what happened there and how to cross to the north, using what the municipality and gov.uk say.

A shopping street with a past

Nicosia municipality describes Ledra and parallel Onasagorou as pedestrian streets lined with every kind of shop, leading into the liveliest part of the old town with its lanes, boutiques and cafés. That’s the street you’ll see today. Seventy years ago it was something else, because during the state of emergency of the 1955-1959 struggle it was known as the Murder Mile, according to the municipality. That period is told in the National Struggle Museum in Nicosia.

Where it begins isn’t random either. In 1882 the British cut an opening in the walls at the top of the street, with a wooden bridge over the moat, to link the old town with the government offices. That gap is today’s Eleftheria Square, which Zaha Hadid’s practice turned into a bridge across the moat of the Venetian walls of Nicosia.

The city from above

Halfway along is the Shacolas Tower, a stone’s throw from the square of Faneromeni Church. On its 11th floor the municipality places a small museum with photographs of old Nicosia, a recorded history in several languages and telescopes. From up there you see both halves of the city and, in the distance, the Kyrenia range. October hours are 10:00 to 18:00, dropping to 10:00 to 17:00 in November; more in Shacolas Tower observatory.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Nicosia for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

The crossing to the north

At the end of the street is the Ledra crossing. Gov.uk explains that only pedestrians can use the Ledra and Ledra Palace crossings, and that any crossing point will do for going between north and south. Take your passport, and remember that the Republic adds the days you spend in the north to your 90 visa-free days.

On the other side you’re still inside the same walled city, but in the part the government doesn’t control. The Spanish foreign ministry warns that the European health insurance card isn’t valid there, so check your travel insurance, and prices are in Turkish lira. The two sights closest to the checkpoint are Büyük Han, the great Ottoman inn, and the Selimiye Mosque, its two minarets rising from the old cathedral. What to see is covered in North Nicosia, and every crossing on the island in crossing to Northern Cyprus.

How I’d do it

I’d stroll down from Eleftheria Square mid-morning and go up the Shacolas Tower before crossing. Then an hour or two in the north and back through the same checkpoint. What really explains the division is in the side streets near the end, where some lanes stop dead at the Green Line barrels. For a drink or a bite, Laiki Geitonia is two streets from the square. And for an unpolished quarter right on the line, cross the old town to Chrysaliniotissa.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Ledra Street on GetYourGuide.

If you would rather go at your own pace, see the car hire deals in Nicosia: the earlier you book, the more cars are left to choose from.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Nicosia for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.