PLACE NAMIK-KEMAL

This pedestrian square of around 3,000^m2 (Namık Kemal Meydanı, Πλατεία Ναμίκ Κεμάλ/Platia Namik Kemal) has been the center of the old town since the Lusignans. Dominated by the Gothic facade of the Lala-Mustafa-Pasha mosque and the venerable Famagusta fig tree, it is surrounded by several monuments (old market, fountain, Ottoman prison, Venetian palace, Turkish baths, ruined churches, etc.) with numerous cafés, restaurants and shops nearby. Since the 1930s, it has been named after the great Turkish writer and journalist Namık Kemal (1840-1888). For criticizing Islam and the Ottoman Empire in a play, the man nicknamed the "Shakespeare of Turkish literature" was imprisoned for 38 months in Famagusta, between 1873 and 1876. His prison, now a museum of little interest, stands directly on the square to the south. This Ottoman building occupies the former courtyard of the Palazzo del Provveditore, seat of the Venetian governor of Cyprus. Taken from the former Lusignan palace built around 1300, only the facade remains as an extension of the prison. The square itself is the former forecourt of Saint-Nicolas Cathedral. It was the setting for two bloody events. In 1372, the population massacred members of the Genoese elite at the start of the war between Genoa and the Lusignan allies of Venice. And, at the end of the terrible siege of 1570-1571, the Venetian "captain" (governor) Marcantonio Bragadin was flayed alive and executed on the orders of Lala Mustafa-Pacha.