Lusignan House

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Lusignan House
Lüzinyan Evi
Nicosia 01-2017 img25 Lusignan House.jpg
The Lusignan House
General information
StatusOpen to public
TypeMansion, museum
Architectural style Gothic, Ottoman
Location Yeni Jami
Address1 Yeni Cami Street
Town or city North Nicosia
Country Northern Cyprus
Completed15th century
Renovated1995-97, 2013
OwnerTurkish Cypriot Department of Antiquities
Technical details
Floor count2

Lusignan House (Turkish : Lüzinyan Evi) is a mansion in the Yeni Jami quarter of North Nicosia. It is located on the Yeni Cami Street. [1]

Turkish language Turkic language (possibly Altaic)

Turkish, also referred to as Istanbul Turkish, is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around ten to fifteen million native speakers in Southeast Europe and sixty to sixty-five million native speakers in Western Asia. Outside Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official language, even though Turkey is not a member state.

Mansion large dwelling house

A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word mansio "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb manere "to dwell". The English word manse originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way. Manor comes from the same root—territorial holdings granted to a lord who would "remain" there—hence it is obvious how the word mansion got its meaning.

Yeni Jami, Nicosia Place in Nicosia District, Cyprus

Yeni Jami is a Neighbourhood, Quarter, Mahalla or Parish of Nicosia, Cyprus and the mosque situated therein after which the Quarter is named. It is spelled Yenicami in Turkish and Γενί Τζαμί in Greek and means "new mosque" in Turkish.

Contents

History

The house was built in the 15th century as a residential building for the Latin nobles during the Lusignan period. After the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus, the house was modified and a cumba (bay window in Ottoman and Turkish architecture) was added. By 1872, the house was in a dilapidated state and was inhabited by the Turkish family of "Kaloria Al Effendi". In 1958, the house was transferred to the possession of the Cypriot government by the Classen family, which then used it as their place of residence and a weaving workshop. Subsequently, the house was partitioned, and after the Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, used by refugees. In the 1980s, it was emptied by the Turkish authorities. [2] [3] [1]

Kingdom of Cyprus

The Kingdom of Cyprus was a Crusader state that existed between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan. It comprised not only the island of Cyprus, but also had a foothold on the Anatolian mainland: Antalya between 1361 and 1373, and Corycus between 1361 and 1448.

Ottoman Empire Former empire in Asia, Europe and Africa

The Ottoman Empire, historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.

Bay window closed, covered, reaching over one or more projectiles porch on the facade of a house

A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.

The renovation and repair of the house began in 1995 by the Turkish Cypriot Department of Antiquities and the building was opened in December 1997 as a museum and a cultural center. The activities in the house include those aimed at the survival of the traditional weaving art. [3] In 2013, the building underwent another renovation, which enabled it to be used for formal social events. There is also a café on the premises that serves traditional Cypriot food. [4]

Architecture

The two-floor building is a combination of the Lusignan Gothic architecture and Ottoman architecture. The entrance is through a Gothic arched doorway with Lusignan coats of arms carved on top. Some of these coats of arms are not well-preserved. On the ground floor, there is a large living room. In 1872, Archduke Louis Salvator reported that the rooms had ornate windows and carvings, some reminiscent of the Maghrebi style, and doorways adorned with reliefs and carvings in the Turkish and Renaissance styles. He wrote in depth about richly carved shelves. In 1987, Haşmet Muzaffer Gürkan reported that much of these had not survived, but those that did survive included the ornately carved and painted ceiling in the upper floor. [1]

Gothic architecture style of architecture

Gothic architecture is a style that flourished in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in 12th-century France, it was widely used, especially for cathedrals and churches, until the 16th century.

Ottoman architecture architecture of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman architecture is the architecture of the Ottoman Empire which emerged in Bursa and Edirne in 14th and 15th centuries. The architecture of the empire developed from the earlier Seljuk architecture and was influenced by the Byzantine architecture, Armenian architecture, Iranian as well as Islamic Mamluk traditions after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans. For almost 400 years Byzantine architectural artifacts such as the church of Hagia Sophia served as models for many of the Ottoman mosques. Overall, Ottoman architecture has been described as Byzantine influenced architecture synthesized with architectural traditions of Central Asia and the Middle East.

Maghreb region of Northwest Africa

The Maghreb, also known as Northwest Africa or Northern Africa, Greater Arab Maghreb, Arab Maghreb or Greater Maghreb, or by some sources the Berber world, Barbary and Berbery, is a major region of North Africa that consists primarily of the countries Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. It additionally includes the disputed territories of Western Sahara and the cities of Melilla and Ceuta. As of 2018, the region has a population of over 100 million people.

In the yard, next to the staircase that leads to the upper floor, there is a pool. Within the yard there are also some ashlar walls and arches, which, according to Gürkan, are remnants from "very old times". [1] The inner courtyard has a rectangular plan and these arches could have previously been a part of the extensions of the mansion. [3]

Ashlar Finely dressed stone and associated masonry

Ashlar is finely dressed stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared or the structure built of it. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvius as opus isodomum, or less frequently trapezoidal. Precisely cut "on all faces adjacent to those of other stones", ashlar is capable of very thin joints between blocks, and the visible face of the stone may be quarry-faced or feature a variety of treatments: tooled, smoothly polished or rendered with another material for decorative effect.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gürkan, Haşmet Muzaffer. Dünkü ve Bugünkü Lefkoşa (in Turkish) (3rd ed.). Galeri Kültür. pp. 132–6. ISBN   9963660037.
  2. ↑ "The Lusignan House". allcrusades.com. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "Lusignan House". TRNC Department of Antiquities. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Lüzinyan Evi restore ediliyor" (in Turkish). Havadis. 14 February 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2015.

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