St. Nicholas Cathedral is the largest Gothic Cathedral in Cyprus. It was built in the late Gothic style. The architecture of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas is very similar to the Cathedral of Reims in France, where the French kings were crowned. After the capture of Cyprus by the Ottomans, the Cathedral was turned into a mosque.
Representatives of the Lusignan family from France took an active part in all the Crusades. Count Hugo VI was one of the confidants of king Baldwin I of Jerusalem (1100-1119). Amaury de Lusignan arrived in Jerusalem in 1170 and received the title of Chamberlain of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. His younger brother Hugo de Lusignan married the heiress of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Princess Sibylla, and became king of Jerusalem himself.
The kings of Jerusalem were initially crowned in Jerusalem, but in 1187 Salah ad-Din recaptured it from the crusaders. Therefore, Hugo de Lusignan was left without a Kingdom. With the help of the Genoese, he bought Cyprus from the Templars and became its king.
While the crusaders still had their last strongholds in the Holy Land, the cities of Tyre and Accra, the kings of Jerusalem were crowned there, but in 1291 they lost them as well. Famagusta became the main city where the crusaders who left the Holy land settled. They expected to return to Jerusalem, so in Famagusta in 1298 began to build the Gothic Cathedral of St. Nicholas, where Lousignians could be crowned, as the kings of Jerusalem. At the coronation, the ritual adopted in the Kingdom of Jerusalem was fully preserved.
St. Nicholas Cathedral was built between 1298 and 1312. Lusignans were originally from France, so the Cathedral was built as the copy of French cathedrals in the late Gothic style. Construction began under Bishop Guillaume de Abeline. The Cathedral of Reims was taken as a model, since French kings were crowned there. Kings of the Lusignan dynasty were crowned as kings of Cyprus in the Hagia Sophia in Nicosia, and as kings of Jerusalem in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Famagusta.
The Cathedral was consecrated in 1328. It has a classic three-nave structure for Gothic cathedrals. The Cathedral is 55 meters long and 23 meters wide. The vaulted ceiling is supported by 12 columns, 6 on each side. A rosette window is located above the main portal of the facade.
During the storming of Famagusta by the Turkish army in 1570, when all of Cyprus island was already conquered by the Turks, the garrison of Famagusta resisted for another 11 months. The storming of Famagusta was led by Lala Mustafa Pasha. After the capture of the city, Famagusta was renamed Magusa, and the Cathedral of St. Nicholas was turned into a mosque. It was called Hagia Sophia the Magusa similar to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The towers of the Cathedral were partially destroyed during the assault and subsequent earthquakes, and they were not restored later. A minaret was built over the left tower.
In 1974, Famagusta became part of Northern Cyprus. The Cathedral of St. Nicholas was renamed the mosque of Lala Mustafa Pasha, the one who led the storming of Famagusta in 1570. A Fig tree grows on the left side of the Cathedral`s facade. It is believed, that it was planted in 1299, at the time of the Foundation of the Cathedral. This is the oldest tree in Cyprus.
