[Bilimsel Haber] Lusignan Famagusta Workshop

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Lusignan Famagusta Workshop

Lusignan Famagusta: Culture, Society and Legacy

When the traveling Russian monk Basil Grigorovich Barskii saw Famagusta 
in 1727
he made an entry in his journal: In it [Famagusta] there are old 
buildings and
beautiful churches going back to ancient times, some of which are now 
empty, and
others have been converted into Turkish mosques. Who having seen the
beauty…will not weep about it, or who having seen the skill and 
the art
with which [they have] been constructed will not be amazed by it?

He concluded however by suggesting a bleak future by saying: And there is no
hope or power, which can restore them or take care of them, and they will
forever remain forsaken, deserted and abandoned.

The three centuries which have elapsed since Barskii’s words were 
written
have done little dispel his pessimistic outlook. In fact, despite the 
claim that
Famagusta once had 365 churches at the peak of its wealth and influence, 
all but
a handful of these have now disappeared or are remain only in a ruinous 
state.
Others have become overgrown or have been dismantled down to foundation 
level
through the removal of cut stone for other building projects in the 
area. The
Ottoman bombardment of 1571 de-roofed many, and subsequent earthquakes 
resulted
in the collapse of remaining walls, but four and a half centuries of 
neglect,
and exposure to the elements, combined with the radical depopulation of the
city, have been, perhaps, most catastrophic of all. The churches that 
survived
best were those that, having survived the siege, were converted for 
alternative
uses, principally as mosques and accordingly underwent the physical 
consequences
of the doctrinal change to Islam. So if today the Lusignan churches of 
Famagusta
are, as Lili Schultheis described them, ‘gothic skeletons with 
dead eyes
of empty windows from where the spirit went away a long, long time 
ago’,
that does not mean they are without their value. On the contrary, they are
precious, and the fading works of art within them the historian’s last
opportunity to glimpse at a now forgotten period of wealth and artistic
achievement in the history of Famagusta, Cyprus and the E/eastern 
Mediterranean.
Little has been written on the Lusignan architecture of Famagusta since 
Camille
Enlart’s majestic L’Art Gothique et la Renaissance en Chypre 
over
100 years ago. This workshop, and the subsequent publication, therefore, 
aims to
re-vitalise scholarship in the field.

Date and location to be confirmed.

Potential contributors please contact: michaeljkwalsh@hotmail.com