Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The great city's first decline began when the Genoese took control in the 14th century,
prompting an exodus of its wealthiest and most illustrious citizens.
Although the town was recaptured by the Venetians 117 years later, its former fortune
and decadence never really returned. During this time the huge walls and bastions were
constructed, but this belated measure did little to prevent its capture by the Ottomans in
1571. In the bloody 10-month siege that ensued, an estimated 100,000 cannonballs were
fired.
Under the Ottomans, Famagusta rotted like a bad tooth. Its ruined buildings were never
repaired, leaving it in an almost Gothic time warp. The Old Town, Kaleici, became a
Turkish Cypriot stronghold.
The region flourished again in the early 1960s when the renowned, predominantly
Greek resort town of Varosia (Maraş; (
Click here
)
), to the south, annually pulled thou-
sands of sun-seeking tourists to its stunning beaches.
However, communal conflicts in 1964 saw more skirmishes in the area, resulting in the
Turks essentially barricading themselves within the Old Town's walls and exiling any
Greeks left to the confines of Varosia.
The island's invasion by the Turkish army in 1974 forced Famagusta, and more particu-
larly Varosia, into the restricted border zone. Deserted by its Greek population in anticipa-
tion of the fast-approaching Turkish military, Varosia remains part of the large, uninhab-
ited buffer zone and is now a ghost town. Haunting, with its gaping dark windows and
abandoned tower blocks, and barricaded by oil drums and barbed wire, it is as it was in
1974, save for a few military outposts and occasional UN patrols.
VAROSIA (MARAŞ)
Before 1974, the Varosia (Maraş in Turkish) district was a thriving community of Greek Cypriots. Many owned
and ran the large resort hotels in what was considered Famagusta's Riviera, overlooking perhaps the island's most
amazing beaches.
In August of that year, with air raids and Turkish military advances in the North, Varosia's residents fled, leav-
ing uncleared breakfast dishes and taking with them little more than the clothes they wore. Many left on the as-
sumption that they would return within a few days, once the emergency was over and a semblance of normality
was restored. That didn't happen. The Turkish army marched on the town unimpeded, and to this day Varosia has
remained empty.
Now the barricades at Varosia are one of the island's most haunting sights, a lingering reminder of the dark
days of 1974. Apartment blocks, shops and houses have remained untouched for 37 years, and are covered in dust
and sediment. A looted car dealership still stocks a single 1974 model, entombed in its showroom, frozen in time.
The grand hotels of this once booming resort town now have bare windows and shell-fire deposits, and have been
left to slowly decay like giant hollow sentinels on the coast.
