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Kyrenia Gate

Kyrenia Gate

One of the 3 gates in the Venetian wall that encircle old Nicosia, it provides access to the city from the north.

For over 1,000 years, Nicosia was a walled city, from the Lusignans through to the Ottomans. During the Renaissance era, the Venetians reconstructed great walls around the capital, threatened by the Ottomans. The 3 original gates were the Famagusta Gate in the east, Paphos Gate in the west and the arched Kyrenia Gate which is one of the old city’s primary entrance points.

Built by the Venetians in 1562, it used to be known as “Porta del Provveditore”, after Italian governor Francesco Barbaro. It had a portcullis and a lion of St Mark which is still visible. The Ottomans added inscriptions to the north wall with verses of the Holy Quran, praising Allah as the “Opener of Gates”. The gate would open with the dawn call to prayer and close with the night prayer.

In 1821, the Ottomans added a guard chamber with a domed roof and renamed it the “Edirne Gate”. The south facing wall has a marble plaque bearing the tughra, a calligraphic monogram of Sultan Mahmut II also dated 1821.

Still in perfect condition it's one of the most attractive historic monuments in Nicosia. The roads on either side of the gate, built by the British in 1931, are still main entry points into the old walled city, maintaining its significance to this day.

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