Venetian Cyprus

Map of Nicosia in Cyprus, created by the Venetian cartographer Giacomo Franco, showing the Venetian walls of Nicosia that were built by the Venetians to defend the city in case of an Ottoman attack

Throughout the period of Venetian rule, Ottoman Turks raided and attacked the peoples of Cyprus at will. The Greek population of Cyprus were given weapons by their Venetian rulers and fought the attacking Ottomans.

In 1489, the first year of Venetian control, Turks attacked the Karpass Peninsula, pillaging and taking captives to be sold into slavery.[3] In 1539 the Turkish fleet attacked and destroyed Limassol.[3] Fearing the ever-expanding Ottoman Empire, the Venetians had fortified Famagusta, Nicosia, and Kyrenia, but most other cities were easy prey.

In 1489, when Cyprus came under Venetian rule, Nicosia became their administrative center. The Venetian governors saw it as a necessity for all the cities of Cyprus to be fortified due to the Ottoman threat.[4] In 1567 Venetians built the new fortifications of Nicosia, which are well-preserved until today, demolishing the old walls built by the Franks as well as other important buildings of the Frankish era including the King's Palace, other private palaces and churches and monasteries of both Orthodox and Latin Christians.[5] The new walls took the shape of a star with eleven bastions: the design of the bastion was more suitable for artillery and a better control for the defenders. The walls had three gates: the "Kyrenia Gate" to the north, the "Paphos Gate" to the west, and the "Famagusta Gate" to the east.[5] The river Pedieos flowed through the Venetian walled city, but in 1567 it was diverted outside into the newly built moat for strategic reasons, due to the expected Ottoman attack.[6]

The Venetians even modified Kyrenia Castle to meet the threat that the use of gunpowder and cannons posed. The castle's royal quarters and three of its four thin and elegant Frankish towers were demolished and replaced by thickset circular towers that could better withstand cannon fire.

Indeed, commercial activity under the Republic of Venice turned Famagusta into a place where merchants and ship owners led lives of luxury. The belief that people's wealth could be measured by the churches they built inspired these merchants to have churches built in varying styles. These churches, which still exist, were the reason Famagusta came to be known as "the district of churches". The development of the town focused on the social lives of the wealthy people and was centered upon the "Lusignan palace", the Cathedral, the Square and the harbour.

In the summer of 1570, the Turks struck again, but this time with a full-scale invasion rather than a raid. About 60,000 troops, including cavalry and artillery, under the command of Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha landed unopposed near Limassol on July 2, 1570, and laid siege to Nicosia. The city fell on September 9, 1570; 20,000 Nicosians were put to death, and every church, public building, and palace was looted. Only women and boys who were captured to be sold as slaves were spared.[7][8] Word of the massacre spread, and a few days later Mustafa took Kyrenia without having to fire a shot. The Venetian walls of Nicosia were incomplete and not useful in stopping this powerful Ottoman army, which was reinforced in the last months of 1570.

However, Famagusta, strengthened by Cyprus' governor Astorre Baglioni,[9] resisted with the Siege of Famagusta and put up a strong defense that lasted from September 1570 until August 1571.

On 15 September 1570, the Turkish cavalry appeared before the last Venetian stronghold in Cyprus, Famagusta. At this point already, overall Venetian losses (including the local population) were estimated by contemporaries at 56,000 killed or taken prisoner.[10] The Venetian defenders of Famagusta numbered about 8,500 men with 90 artillery pieces and were commanded by Marco Antonio Bragadin. They held out for 11 months against a force that came to number more than 200,000 men, with 145 guns,[11] providing the time needed by the Pope to cobble together an anti-Ottoman league from the reluctant Christian European states.[12]

The Turks lost some 52,000 men in five major assaults in early 1571, until in summer the Venetians, despairing to receive any rescue from the homeland and on request from the local starving civilians, decided to surrender. In July 1571 the Turks eventually breached the fortifications of Famagusta and their forces broke into the citadel, being repulsed only at the cost of heavy losses. With provisions and ammunition running out, his soldiers able to fight reduced to just seven hundred and no sign of relief from Venice, on August 1[13] Bragadin asked for terms of surrender. The Turkish commander, Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha, agreed to allow the survivors to safely return to Crete, but he did not keep his word: he was enraged because of his older son's death attacking so few Venetian defenders. There followed a massacre of all Christians still in the city, with Bragadin himself most brutally abused.

From a military point of view, the besieged garrison's perseverance required a massive effort by the Ottoman Turks, who were so heavily committed that they were unable to redeploy in time when the Holy League built up the fleet later victorious against the Muslim power at the Battle of Lepanto (1571): this was the legacy of Bragadin and his Venetians to Christianity, as Theodore Mommsen wrote. Historians to this day debate just why Venice did not send help to Bragadin from Souda, Crete. It is alleged that some Venetians thought about putting their limited military assets to better use in the forthcoming clash, already in sight, which would climax in the Battle of Lepanto.

The fall of Famagusta marked the beginning of the Ottoman period in Cyprus. It is noteworthy to pinpoint that this is the historical setting to Shakespeare's Othello, the play's title character being the commander of the Venetian garrison defending Cyprus against the Ottomans.