Haydar Paşa Mosque

14th-century Lusignan Gothic church turned mosque

The former Latin church of St. Catherine, built in the 14th century by the Lusignans in pure French Gothic, converted to a mosque by the Ottomans. It is the second most important Gothic monument in the city after the Selimiye, and the carved doorway with its dragon corbels is one of the great pieces of medieval sculpture on Cyprus.

The mosque is no longer in regular use as a place of worship and now functions as an exhibition space. Hours are erratic — if it is open, look up at the rib vaulting and you have a sense of what Nicosia's churches must have been before 1571.

things to do sight architecture