Haydar Pasa Mosque
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Haydar Pasa Mosque |
The Haydar Pasa Mosque was built as the St Catherine
Church by the Lusignans in the 14th century, and was the second largest
church in Nicosia at the time. It is the most substantial Gothic
monument in Nicosia after the Selimiye Mosque. Great buttresses
flank its high, slender windows, the roofline rimmed with gargoyles. The
southern door is a masterpiece of detailed stone carving, and the
Lusignan coat of arms are above the door, along with an ornamental
poppy or acanthus bud. The west entrance is larger with the same
architecture. Its frame is decorated with motifs of roses and dragons.
The west facade is adorned with a Catherine window, shaped like
the wheel of the saints' martyrdom.
The building which was used as part of the woman's monastery during the
Latin period, had parts added and modified during the Ottoman period,
and the church converted into a mosque. A purpose-built minaret was
added on to the south west corner, sadly in a style not in keeping with
the original structure. The church was renamed the Agalar Mosque in
1570. In the 1950s it was used
as the marriage and registration office. The mosque was restored between
1986 and 1991, and reopened as an exhibition gallery (the H P Gallery) in 1994.
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