Glimpses+in+the+Past

@D'Avila Bastion

Some words about the name of our wiki...

In 1567 the Venetians, growing uneasy because of the growing threat of the Ottoman Turks, decide to fortfy the city of Nicosia in Cyprus. For this purpose they invite Giulio Savorgnano and ask him to build the walls of the city. The [|new walls] are circular, surrounding the city, and have the shape of a star with eleven bastions. The walls have only three gates: the Kyrenia Gate to the north, the Paphos Gate to the west and to the east the Famagusta Gate, initially called 'Porta Julia' after the architect who designed it. All the gates are outings bearing the names of the most important towns found in the corresponding direction of each gate.

These walls are typical of Medieval military architecture. Similar walls are, also, found in [|Palmanova], in northern Italy.

The Nicosia Town Hall is located on the D' Avila bastion on a road leading from Famagusta Gate to 'Plateia Eleftheria' (or 'Freedom Square'), a traditional meeting point for Nicosians and currently under re-construction. The square, also, joins the 'old' part of the city to the new commercial part. The old city of Nicosia includes among other things 'Laiki Yitonia', where the Tourist Information Centre can be found, a pedestrian area strawn with old byzantine churches, the Archibishopric and other sites.