These pictures were taken in September 2001. There are not
many visible remains of the Lusignan and Venetian periods (1190-1571) in
Cyprus. A number of tombstones are shown in the local museum of Lemessos
(Limassol) but taking photographs was forbidden. The Lapidary Museum
in the Turkish part of Nicosia was closed when we visited. The major
remains of the Lusignan period are in the Turkish zone, where we did not
go.
Commandery of the Order of Saint John at Kolossi, a few miles west of
Limassol (Lemessos), where the order had its headquarters from 1302 to
1310, when it moved to Rhodes.
The arms of the kings of Cyprus in the center are surrounded by the
arms of the grandmasters Jean de Lastic (1437-54) and Jacques de Milly
(1454-61). This sculpture is almost certainly a modern reproduction.
Detail on the side of a chimney inside the commandery of Kolossi.
Arms on the Famagusta gate, Nicosia (16th c.).
Loredano: per pale or and azure, six roses, three in fess in chief
and three 2 and 1 in base, counterchanged.
Pietro Loredano was doge, 1567-70.
Façade of the house of the drogman Hadjigeorgakis, Nicosia (18th c.).
Blank coat of arms, outer wall of the church of St. John the Theologian (1662), Nicosia. The church is located where a benedictine monastery once stood.
Relief set above the west door of the church of St. John the Theologian.
The inscription dates from the construction of the church (1662), the
arms are obviously older. The center coat of arms is that of the
kings of Cyprus, but the Jerusalem quarter has been carefully erased. (the
remaining quarters are Lusignan, Armenia, and Luxemburg).
Tombstone in St. Sophia cathedral (now Suleymanie mosque), Nicosia.
The arms show a pair of shears. The inscription was illegible
to me.
Arms on the outside wall of the southern transept, St. Sophia cathedral,
Nicosia.
These arms are those of the des Pins family (Roger des Pins was grandmaster
of the order of St. John, 1355-65)
Arms on St. Nicholas of the English, next to the cathedral, St. Sophia.
Note the curious shape of the shields.
Arms on St. Nicholas of the English, next to the cathedral, St. Sophia.
Note again the curious shape of the shields.
Façade of the lapidary museum, a 15th c. Venetian house near the cathedral, Nicosia.
Arms on the base of a Venetian column, Atatürk Meydani, Nicosia.
Pesaro: barry pily of siz or and azure.
Arms on the base of a Venetian column, Atatürk Meydani, Nicosia.
Mulla: per pale azure and argent a fess counterchanged.
Arms on the base of a Venetian column, Atatürk Meydani, Nicosia.
Francesco Donato, doge from 1545 to 1553: Argent two bars and in
chief three roses gules.
Detail of frescoes in the royal Chapel, Pyrga, 1421.