The Ömeriye Mosque, a Gothic church with a minaret

In the southern half of Nicosia’s old town, few buildings capture the jump from crusaders to Ottomans as neatly as this one. Outside there’s a minaret; at the door and inside, a Gothic church. Below is its story, how to visit and what to do with the hammam next door, using the municipality’s and Tourism Board’s entries.

From Augustinian church to mosque

The municipality explains that tombs of Augustinian hermits found on the site show it was a church of that order dedicated to St Mary. The main doorway is from the original 14th-century building. It had a single nave of 41 by 11 metres with cross vaults and stood about 15 metres high, making it the most imposing medieval building in the city after St Sophia. The architecture is plain, with heavy façades and buttresses, and traces of a Renaissance addition survive to the north-east.

During the siege of 1570, Ottoman cannon destroyed the roof and upper walls. After the conquest the Ottomans rebuilt the walls, added a timber roof, plastered the interior and built the minaret, and Mustafa Pasha turned it into a mosque in 1571.

Why it’s called Ömeriye

After the caliph Omar. The municipality records the legend that he passed through Nicosia on his way to Egypt and slept in the porch of the ruined church, and the Tourism Board adds the belief that he was buried there. It’s legend, and both sources present it as such.

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The hammam, still in use

Close by, at 8 Tylliria Street, is the Ömeriye hammam, built in 1570-1571 as a gift to the city from Lala Mustafa Pasha and also dedicated to Omar. It won a Europa Nostra award in the mid-2000s; the municipality dates it to 2005 and the Tourism Board to 2006. What makes it interesting is that it isn’t a museum but a working bathhouse, with domes, marble and hot rooms, and the municipality mentions scrubs with coffee, cinnamon or crushed olive stones, and massages. Sessions run by day, as shown in the table.

The other southern mosque, Bayraktar

If this chapter of history interests you, the southern city keeps another mosque with a very different story. The Bayraktar Mosque stands at the western end of the Costanza bastion, in the south of the old town. The municipality explains that the name comes from «bayrak», flag, because the first Ottoman flag was raised there when the city fell on 9 September 1570, and that the standard-bearer was killed on the spot and buried there. The tomb was built in 1764 and the mosque in 1820. The Tourism Board adds that until 1930 it held hairs from the Prophet’s beard, which were stolen on 27 November that year.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Ömeriye Mosque and pick one that fits your day.

Visiting

The Tourism Board says the mosque can be visited at any reasonable hour as long as there are no prayers. I’d go in with shoulders and knees covered, take my shoes off and not photograph anyone praying. It’s beside the Central Municipal Market and a few minutes from Laiki Geitonia, and one of the board’s free guided walks passes through Tillyria Square and Ömeriye, after the square of Faneromeni Church. To see the great Gothic cathedral the municipality ranks above it in height, St Sophia, you’ll need to cross into North Nicosia, where it is now the Selimiye Mosque. Close to the Ömeriye is the House of Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios, home of the Ottoman governor’s interpreter.

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