Study to begin for conservation of Famagusta’s St George of the Greeks church

A study is to begin regarding the conservation of the St George of the Greeks church in Famagusta, bicommunal technical committee on cultural heritage co-chairman Sotos Ktoris said.

The church dates back to the 14th century and was built immediately to the west of a much earlier church which was also dedicated to St George, with Famagusta’s Greek Orthodox community of the day said to have wished to build a cathedral to rival the grandeur of the town’s Latin St Nicholas cathedral – now the Lala Mustafa Pasha mosque.

It suffered cannonball damage during the Ottoman siege of Famagusta in the 16th century, with that damage still visible on the structure’s outer walls to this day.

Much of Famagusta’s walled city was abandoned in the centuries which followed, with the church itself used as a shooting gallery and sailors from ships arriving at the nearby port known to etch drawings of their ships into the church’s walls.