A Brief History of Nicosia

Posted by Lance Goodman on Jul 5, 2011 | 0 comments

Nicosia, known to the locals as Lefkosia, is the largest city in Cyprus. Interestingly, it is also the only divided city in all of Europe. Separating the northern half from the southern half is the U.N. buffer zone. It runs along what is known as the “Green Line.”

This was originally a cease fire line established by General Peter Young, after stationing his troops in different areas of the city. The line was in fact drawn with a green crayon. In 1974, the Turkish troops pushed their way up to this point and it thus became the southern border of the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Around 10,000 people actually live inside the buffer zone, as there are numerous village located within. The old Nicosia international airport is even inside this zone. It stretches for 180 km from near Kato Pyrgos to just south of Famagusta. The Turkish forces built a barrier on the zone’s northern side, which includes concrete walls, barbed-wire fences, and mine fields.

The “old city” of Nicosia is a fascinating place, primarily due to the Venetian walls. These were constructed in response to the Ottoman invasion in the 16th century. The Ottomans launched a massive invasion of the island with tens of thousands of men that laid siege to its cities and massacred some 20,000 of its civilians.

It was this brutal conquest that eventually spurred the West into action. They formed a Venetian-Genoese-Papal-Spanish coalition known as the Holy League, and with their combined forces won a spectacular naval victory against the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto, in which the Ottomans lost 30,000 sailors and 90 percent of their navy. This was one of the most crucial battles in history and the turning point of the war between the Muslim East and the Christian West.