Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque.
Lala Mustafa Paşa Camii · Gazimağusa
A French Gothic cathedral with a minaret, the centre of old Famagusta.
What to see at Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque
- A flat west front with three portals, each under a crocketed gable filled with tracery, set between angled buttresses.
- Over the middle portal, a great six-light window with a rose in its head, under its own crocketed gable.
- Two square, unfinished west towers, each face cut by a tall open belfry arch; the minaret stands on the north tower's platform.
- Along the sides, six nave bays with a buttress for each, quatrefoils pierced through its upper wall, and an openwork parapet with pinnacles rising to about 29 metres.
- Warm golden limestone, darkened by weathering in the recesses; the roofs are flat terraces and the minaret has a grey lead cone.
- Inside, the walls are whitewashed.
History of Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque
- 1298–1312
- The cathedral of Saint Nicholas is built in Gazimağusa, its west front in the French Gothic manner.
- 1328
- The cathedral is consecrated.
- Lusignan period
- The Lusignan kings, crowned kings of Cyprus in Lefkoşa, take the crown of Jerusalem here.
- 1570–71
- The walled city of Famagusta holds out against the Ottoman siege for eleven months.
- 1571
- With the conquest of the city the cathedral becomes a mosque, and a minaret is added.
- Today
- Gazimağusa's largest medieval building, still a working mosque at the centre of the old town.
Visiting Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque
Allow about half an hour. Lala Mustafa Paşa Camii is a working mosque: dress modestly, remove your shoes and avoid prayer times. It stands inside the walls of Gazimağusa, with a car park about 50 metres away; there is no bus stop within about 500 metres, so plan to come on foot or by car. Walk round the outside as well: the west front, the long south side with its buttresses and the east end each show a different part of the building.
About the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque 3D model
The model shows the outside only, about 61 metres long and 31 across, built from a measured plan and cross-section of the 1890s. The nave wall top, 24.9 metres, agrees with a second reading from a square-on photograph to within 2 per cent. The tower tops and the minaret rest on that one photograph, so they are less certain. The three east apses are merged into one polygonal end, and the chapels are left out because their present state is not settled. It has not had its final review yet.
Monuments near Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque
- Namık Kemal DungeonThe cell where the poet Namık Kemal was held in 1873–76.
- Famagusta Walled CityThe walled town around it, with the ruins of dozens of churches, starts here.
- Othello CastleThe harbour citadel.