The Greek Cathedral in Nicosia

South of the square of the Latin Cathedral of St Sophia stands a church in ruins, which used to be a market in the Ottoman period (bedestan)[1]. It is clearly mentioned in the sixteenth century as being a Greek cathedral. However, the monument’s origins and history are relatively obscure in the available documentation.

It is traditionally believed that the first Greek cathedral in this location dates from late Antiquity. However, the primitive cathedral could also have been located on the site of the Latin Cathedral of St Sophia, as the Greek name was kept for the Latin edifice and Byzantine capitals were reused in the monument. The remains of the church that were found under the bedestan therefore constitute the second church of an Episcopal group[2] dating from late Antiquity. Indeed, the excavations carried out in 1937 uncovered the foundations of an apse in front of the current apse, and an apsidiole in the north. Moreover a pavement worked in opus sectile, in the central apse, has been dated to the sixth century, which confirms the existence of a building in late Antiquity.

The monument’s history under the rule of the Lusignans remains obscure, even if there is every reason to believe that it was already a Greek cathedral. However, it was only in the Venetian period that travellers reported the existence of a cathedral dedicated to the Virgin and/or St Nicholas, depending on the sources.[3].

In the Ottoman period, after 1570, the edifice ceased to be used as a cathedral due to its proximity to St Sophia, which had become a great mosque. It was transformed into a market, known as the Bedestan, resulting in major restructuring work on the monument, which was still very beautiful, according to seventeenth-century travellers. In the nineteenth century, it was used as a barn. Under the English administration of the island, the project to turn the building into an Anglican church was stopped because the building was too close to the mosque of St Sophia (this is against Islamic law). Important restoration work was carried out in the twentieth century to unearth the ancient monument.  

The church has serious irregularities, both in its plan and its structure. The central nave is flanked by a simple side aisle on the northern side, and on the southern side by two narrower and shorter aisles. This asymmetric layout is the result of successive partial reconstructions, from the sixth-century monument to the Venetians’ building campaign in the sixteenth century. There were at least three phases: the two small southern apsidioles are the most ancient and may belong to the sixth-century edifice[4]. The northern apsidiole belongs to the Lusignan period, like many of the other structures, which were heavily reconstructed during the Venetian era. The northern side, with its three sculpted portals, mixes Renaissance-inspired ornamentation with imitations of the fourteenth-century portals of neighbouring St Sophia Cathedral. It would appear that the Venetian administration initiated major reconstruction work. The sudden interruption of work on the site, which remained incomplete, may be explained by the Ottoman siege of Nicosia in 1570.

[2] According to Jean Hubert’s definition: two cathedrals with a baptistery constitute an ‘Episcopal group’.

[3] The lintel of one of the north portals contains a figure of St Nicholas in the sixteenth century, which wrongly led Camille Enlart to assume that it was a church belonging to the order of St Thomas of Canterbury, the English St Nicholas Church. The order had left Cyprus at the end of the fourteenth century.

[4] This primitive edifice with its five naves is the same type as the basilica of St Epiphany of Salamis, with a sanctuary consisting of a wide central apse flanked on each side by two narrow apsidioles.