The Walls of Old City

The district of Old City is surrounded by a Venetian city wall. The Lusignans originally built the wall very high and thin. After the Venetians had conquered Famagusta in 1489, experts arrived from Venice to rebuild the wall so it would stand the strain from bombardment by the modern artillery of those days. The wall was made thicker and the squarish towers were replaced with round ones. Preparations were made to protect the city from the expanding Islamic Ottoman Empire. Outside the wall there is a 46 meters wide moat. The wall with its artillery ramps, embrasures, arms depots, stores and stables, has rejected several sieges, as late as in 1974 when Greek Cypriot forces surrounded Old City for a month.