ARCHITECTURE, MONUMENTS AND RENAISSANCE INFLUENCES
ON CYPRUS – PAPHOS AREA (12th – 16th century)
FRANKISH RULE 1192- 1489
The Lusignan dynasty, originally from Poitiers in France, determined the nature of culture and architecture on Cyprus after 1192. Rapprochement with Venice grew from the mid-15th century, when King James of Cyprus married Catherine Cornaro, daughter of a prominent Venetian citizen. More than a few Cypriot artists studied in Italy and transmitted the aesthetic principles of the Renaissance to the island.
FORTIFICATIONS
In the field of fortifications, the medieval tower system was maintained under Frnakish rule, although in some cases there is evidence of trends preceding the bastion system.
The Forty Columns Fortress in Paphos
The Forty Columns Fortress within the archaeological site at Kato Paphos takes its name from the large number of granite pillars that derive from an Early Christian basilica and were incorporated into the stronghold. The original core of the fortress is Byzantine, dating to the late 7th century. In about 1200 the Lusignans made several modifications, to which the fort owes its present structure. It was used until 1222, when it was abandoned after being destroyed by a powerful earthquake.
In its present state of preservation, the monument consists of a square castle protected by an external wall measuring 70 by 70 meters with towers and bastion platforms, surrounded by a dry ditch.
The Church of St. Michael the Archangel and its in-built tower
The frescoed church of St. Michael the Archangel outside the village of Lyssos was extended to the west in the early 16th century, thus encompassing an older tower. The form of the thresholds and the entire structure in general testify to Frankish influences.
SECULAR ARCHITECTURE
The Lusignan palaces in the major urban centres, none of which have survived, were imposing Gothic buildings. In the Paphos area such structures were limited in number. One significant secular architecture monument is the medieval wing of the villa at Kouklia, which is topped by Gothic vaulted domes.
CHURCH ARCHITECTURE
Throughout the period of Frankish rule, a Franco-Byzantine trend developed in church architecture. Strong links to the Byzantine paradigms in the mother city were maintained, as was the style of mid-Byzantine churches on the island. The refugees who came to Cyprus after the fall of Constantinople renewed contact with art in the capital city. Church building mainly involved extending, altering and adding to earlier Byzantine churches. Frankish influences are apparent in threshold figures and the extensive use of ornamental sculpture of mythological origin, relief decorations and escutcheons. There are also a few instances of churches built in their entirety during this period, which were purely Gothic in form.
VENETIAN RULE 1489-1570
Catherine Cornaro, the last heir of the Lusignan family, ceded the throne to the Republic of St. Mark in 1489. Venetian sovereignty on Cyprus constituted a continuation of French dominion over the Greek Orthodox population. Nonetheless, from a wider perspective the enormous significance of this relatively short period for the island’s history becomes clear. While under the Lusignans the main horizon had been the Levant, as a possession of the Serenissima Cyprus was incorporated into a much broader framework of political, economic and cultural developments in the Mediterranean.
FORTIFICATIONS
Venetian strategy in the face of the obvious Turkish threat was late in being applied. It was only from 1557 onwards that the state of the island’s fortifications was reviewed in earnest, as part of the overall attempt to bolster the defences of the maritime state (or Stato di Mar, as it was known). Most of the medieval strongholds were demolished, but limited attempts to modernize Limassol and Paphos were soon abandoned.
The largest fortification works were constructed at the two main urban centres of Famagusta and Nicosia, where the bastion system was applied. The most finished example is that at the island capital of Nicosia. The final plan of the fortifications is attributed Giulio Savorgnan, and bears several similarities to the new walls at Chandax, to which he made a major contribution.
Venice had long expected the Tukish offensive to be directed against Famagusta, which was protected by medieval and Genoese fortifications. The process of reforming and modernizing the obsolete defences proved to be a slow and piecemeal affair that lasted until 1570, involving more than eleven architects and engineers and several local artisans. At the castle of Kerynia opposite Turkish Asia Minor, the Republic confined itself to a half-hearted attempt at restructuring. No similar works of scale were carried out at Paphos, which was not a major port. The Venetians were however responsible for the form of the Harbour Castle, built in 1474 on the site of an earlier medieval tower, in accordance with contemporary paradigms. Morphological similarities with the Heraklion harbour fortress (Koules) at Chandax are immediately obvious. The Venetians themselves demolished the castle in the mid-16th century, for fear that it would inevitably be captured and then serve as a base for hostilities against the remaining possessions they were struggling to protect. The Turks later rebuilt the fortress almost from scratch, working between 1580 and 1592 under Ahmet Pasha, Commander of Cyprus.
SECULAR BUILDINGS
For all its tradition of ostentation when it came to public buildings, the Republic of Saint Mark left a meagre legacy of monuments on Cyprus. Apart from the columns raised in Nicosia and Famagusta as a symbol of the Signoria’s supremacy, the Provveditor’s Palace in Famagusta with its impressive medieval colonnade is almost the only remnant of Venetian secular architecture on Cyprus. Archive testimony and monuments reveal that sugar cane cultivation continued to flourish under Venetian rule, despite that the Venetians only traded Cypriot sugar for a short time, after which they turned mainly to cotton growing. The Cornaros sugar refinery at Epsikopi-Seragia is the key monument in Venetian industrial architecture on Cyprus, being the latest but most advanced of all the major sugar works on the island.
CHURCH ARCHITECTURE
Few church monuments belong to the Venetian period per se. Influence is mainly apparent in relief decoration, the use of decorative motifs and escutcheons, and the use of relief cornices, tympana, window and door frames, where the largest number of elements common to similar monuments on Crete are to be found. The few truly Venetian churches appear to have been liberated from the forms of Byzantine paradigms.
