Venetian Palace and Namık Kemal Dungeon

Of the palace that housed first the kings of Cyprus and then the Venetian governors, little more than the façade remains: three arches on Famagusta’s main square, across from the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque. Behind it lies an empty courtyard, and in a side wing the cell where the poet Namık Kemal spent three years in exile.

The Lusignans kept Famagusta as their second residence after Nicosia. The Genoese notary Lamberto di Sambuceto already refers to the “palace of the King of Cyprus” in 1300–1302; who built it is uncertain, and Camille Enlart suggested Henry II. In 1552–1554 the Venetians, who were also renewing the city walls, rebuilt the front and back of the palace, replacing its Gothic features with Renaissance ones. The columns and stones of the arcade were taken from the ruins of Salamis, and a coat of arms survives above the central arch.

Most accounts say the central wings were destroyed in the siege of 1571, although Ottoman descriptions from that year mention no damage. Under the Ottomans the complex served as barracks, prison and drill ground, and under the British as a prison and police headquarters. The plain arches behind the façade may be remnants of the Lusignan palace. Cannons, cannonballs and pieces of a large granite column lie in the courtyard.

The two-storey dungeon stands on part of the palace site: its ashlar ground floor is pre-Ottoman, the upper floor Ottoman. Namık Kemal was exiled here after his play Vatan Yahut Silistre was staged in Constantinople on 5 April 1873. He was first held in a dark cell downstairs and later allowed to move to the upper room, where he wrote the plays Gülnihal and Akif Bey. After Abdülaziz was deposed, Murad V pardoned him on 3 June 1876. The dungeon was restored in 1993 and opened as a museum with his belongings and papers.

Opening hours: Namık Kemal Dungeon (museum): 1 April – 31 October: Mon–Fri 8:00–15:30, last entry 15:00; closed weekends and public holidays (as of October 2026).

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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.