Nicosia's Venetian walls, an eleven-pointed star

The walls are the first thing to get your head round in Nicosia. They mark where the old town starts and stops, and from the air they form a near-perfect star. Their story, their state today and the way I’d walk them follow below, using the city council’s figures.

A smaller circuit than before

The first stone walls were built by the Lusignans in the 14th century, and they enclosed far more ground than today’s. When Venice took Cyprus in 1489, it found them old, too big for its garrison and too close to the hills to the east. In 1562 Ascanio Savorgnano even wrote that an inland city wasn’t worth fortifying. Five years later, with the Ottoman threat growing, Venice changed its mind and sent his brother Giulio.

Giulio Savorgnano drew a tighter circle, cleared what was in the way and raised the walls quickly and cheaply, according to a chronicler of 1627 quoted by the municipality. The result was a star of eleven heart-shaped bastions designed for artillery, ringed by an 80-metre moat. The municipality says they were considered the prototype of Renaissance military architecture.

Three years later, the siege

It didn’t help much. The Ottoman landing came on 1 July 1570, and by the end of the month had the city surrounded. They built earthwork forts facing the Podocataro, Costanza, Davila and Tripoli bastions and bombarded for weeks. On Sunday 9 September they broke in through the Podocataro bastion and the city fell. Afterwards the Ottomans repaired the walls and faced in stone the upper part, which the Venetians had built in mud brick.

Today the Podocataro bastion carries the Liberty Monument, close to the old aqueduct and a couple of minutes from the eastern gate. On the Costanza bastion, the Bayraktar Mosque marks the spot where, according to tradition, the first Ottoman flag was raised. The other great Ottoman landmark in the south is the Ömeriye Mosque in Nicosia.

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The three gates

With only three ways in, everyone had to use them. Kyrenia Gate, to the north, is now in the part of the city the government doesn’t control; in 1931 an opening was cut beside it because one of the first buses couldn’t fit under the arch. Paphos Gate, to the west, is a simple vaulted opening with the police station on top, and across the moat stands the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia. The big one is Famagusta Gate, to the east, which deserves its own visit.

The British began cutting openings in 1879. The best known, from 1882, is at the top of Ledra Street, now Eleftheria Square, redesigned by Zaha Hadid’s practice as a bridge across the moat.

How I’d walk them

There’s no ticketed wall walk; you see the walls from outside. I’d drop down into the moat at Eleftheria Square and head east, bastion by bastion, to Famagusta Gate, passing close to the Archbishop’s Palace and Laiki Geitonia. It’s free, flat and takes an unhurried hour. On a Wednesday morning you’ll find the farmers’ market by the Bayraktar Mosque.

The northern half of the circle, with Kyrenia Gate, comes into view once you cross to North Nicosia. It’s the same wall, and to me seeing both halves is the best way to understand that this is one city.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Venetian walls and choose by the reviews.

A car frees you from timetables: search car hire in Nicosia on DiscoverCars and compare companies.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Nicosia before prices climb.