Haydar Pasha Mosque (St Catherine's Church)

A carved rose between two dragons, repeated three times on the marble lintel of the west door, greets visitors to the most important Gothic building in Nicosia after the cathedral of Saint Sophia, now the Selimiye Mosque. It is a small single-aisled 14th-century church with fine carving, to which the Ottomans added a minaret. The dedication to Saint Catherine is first recorded by Giovanni Mariti, who visited the city in 1767, and was taken up by Camille Enlart in 1899. Philippe Plagnieux and Thierry Soulard allow that it may have been the church of a Benedictine nunnery, but Michalis Olympios considers the dedication to Catherine beyond doubt.

There is no firm date. Olympios places the building in the late 1350s or early 1360s: the Lusignan arms on the nave keystones point to royal patronage, and the masons clearly knew the carving at Bellapais and the cathedral. Plagnieux and Soulard date it to the second quarter of the 14th century, under Hugh IV. The church is modest in size, 17 by 8 metres and 12 metres high, but richly decorated outside: buttresses with gargoyles and tall narrow traceried windows. In the sacristy the vault rests on corbels carved with human heads.

It became a mosque after Nicosia fell in 1570, gaining a mihrab, a minbar and a women’s gallery. A document of 5 September 1573 records that Haydar, aga of the volunteers, had repaired the church, turned it into a mosque and been allowed to build a fountain beside it. Popular memory later promoted the aga to pasha. It was also called the Ağalar Camii, the mosque of the aghas, after the Turkish notables who lived nearby. Its minaret is the second tallest in the old city after those of the Selimiye.

As late as the 19th century Greek Cypriots came to light oil lamps at a spot believed to be the tomb of Saint Catherine. The building later housed a marriage registry office and is now an art gallery. It stands on Kirlizade Street, a couple of minutes from the Selimiye and the Bedesten.

The site lies in the northern part of the island, which has not been under the control of the Republic of Cyprus since 1974. It is reached through the official crossing points.