Walsh, M. ‘”The Vile Embroidery of Ruin”’: Historic Famagusta between Ottoman and British Empires in fin (original) (raw)

'The Age of Ruins': Whatever Happened to Venetian Famagusta?

It would be difficult to upstage the archival scholarship on Venetian Famagusta already published by such notables as Benjamin Arbel and Gilles Grivaud, or to surpass the analysis of its architecture by Allan Langdale and Gianni Perbellini, and so I shall not try. Rather, I look at the city through a different lens and in so doing add some small, but enticing, details to our knowledge of the Venetian period and the years of ruin that followed. This has been done by turning to almost entirely unknown contemporary travellers’ accounts, by examining some unrecorded graffiti recently discovered on Famagusta’s walls and by conducting a survey of earthquakes and the related superstitions which accompanied them. The study concludes by observing some heated debates between Victorian London and Venice that continued well into the 20th century, andit brings to light the little known fact that Marcantonio Bragadino’s tomb was re-opened in 1961.

"Holy Mother of God Armenian Church in Famagusta," with "Arm. Mss Colophons from Famagusta & Cyprus," & "Notes by M. Bardswell, 1937, Courtauld Institute," Medieval & Renaissance Famagusta: Studies in Architecture, Art & History, M. Walsh, P. Edbury, N. Coureas, eds., Ashgate, 2012, 133-46, 301-9.

Fortuna Famagustae: Fortification Lines, Regions and Territories in Famagusta, Cyprus, 1308-1571 | Conference Program | Renaissance Society of America | Boston | 2016

The fortifications of Famagusta, the largest port of Renaissance Cyprus, initially rose between 1308 and 1372 on orders from the Lusignan, the island’s ruling French family, and following Papal indulgences for their hastened completion. The chain of sociopolitical events that shaped Famagusta’s history under the subsequent rules of Genoa (1373-1464) and Venice (1489-1571) necessitated substantial modifications to the physical disposition of the city’s waterfront castle, walls, fifteen towers and three gates. This paper interprets the defensive structures of Famagusta both as barriers that fragmented the city and its surrounding area into distinct territories, and as a network of interconnected spaces that gave the city its unified character and urban form. The city’s fortifications are shown to have not only functioned as inseparable parts of its military history, but also to have shaped the everyday life experiences of its diversified ethno-linguistic populace, and to have commanded Famagusta’s changing tyche or fortune.

"“Ruined Cities in Cyprus”: How a Three-Hundred-Word Letter Kick-Started the Preservation of Cyprus’s Medieval Structures."

Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2021

At the eve of the twentieth century, Cyprus’s British administration perceived the island’s medieval structures from a utilitarian point of view; their premises were put to new uses, their stones were removed and reused in new constructions. A mere six years later, selected medieval structures were declared monuments under the then-enacted 1905 Antiquities Law. This article investigates this radical shift and seeks to establish the seminal role of an anonymous letter sent to the Times in December 1899 . It argues that these 300 words against the alleged demolition of Famagusta’s medieval walls by the British Colonial Office initiated the first steps toward the preservation of medieval structures not only within the town but across the island. Ultimately it seeks to establish that the actions of this six-year period, a response to the letter’s allegations, marked the beginning of a process that shaped Cyprus’s medieval monuments as we appreciate them today.