Nicosia

Nicosia has been a settled place for a very long time. Its Greek name, Lefkosia, and its Turkish name, Lefkoşa, come from the same root, and the inland plain it sits on, the Mesaoria, has been farmed since the Bronze Age. In antiquity a kingdom called Ledra stood near here, and the modern city grew around a medieval town that became a serious capital in the 12th century, when the crusader family of Lusignan took the island and made Nicosia the seat of a Latin kingdom.

The Lusignan kings ruled Cyprus from 1192 to 1489 and left Gothic churches with French-style vaults. The best known, the church of Saint Sophia, was where the kings were crowned; today it is the Selimiye Mosque on the northern side of the divide. Venice took control in 1489 and held the island for eight decades. Fearing an Ottoman attack, the Venetians pulled down the old walls in 1567 and built a new ring of eleven heart-shaped bastions around a smaller, circular city. They knocked down palaces and churches outside the circle to clear the ground. The ring is what visitors now walk beside, and it is still the clearest map of Nicosia.

The Ottomans took Nicosia in 1570 after a siege and ruled the island until 1878. They turned some churches into mosques, built hans (merchants' inns) and hammams, and gave the old town its mix of communities, with Greek Orthodox, Turkish Muslim, Armenian and Maronite quarters living side by side. Britain took over the administration in 1878, made Cyprus a crown colony in 1925, and began to build a new town outside the walls, where the government buildings and Makarios Avenue now stand.

Independence came in 1960. The constitution shared power between the Greek and Turkish communities, and it did not survive. In December 1963 fighting broke out in Nicosia, and a British general drew a line on the city map, commonly said to have been done with a green pencil, to separate the two sides. The name Green Line stuck. In 1964 a United Nations peacekeeping force arrived, and it is still there. After a coup in July 1974 and a Turkish military intervention that followed, the line hardened into a buffer zone across the whole island, and Nicosia was left with a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north. The Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 and adopted the euro in 2008; EU law is suspended in the north.

The buffer zone is the reason Nicosia feels unlike any other Mediterranean capital. It runs through the old town roughly east to west, only a few metres wide in some lanes, and much wider on the outskirts. The United Nations controls it, and in the old town you see it as walls of oil drums, sandbags and rusted barriers at the end of a shopping lane. Some streets that used to link the two communities simply stop. Buildings inside the zone have been left empty and fell into ruin.

For thirty years there was almost no crossing. In 2003 the Turkish Cypriot side allowed people to cross, and from 2008 the Ledra Street checkpoint reopened to walkers, which turned the main shopping street into a route between the two halves of the city. You cross on foot, with a passport, and show it on both sides; the rules on hire cars, goods and photography have changed over the years, so check them at the checkpoint on the day. On the northern side, the old town continues in the same street plan, with the Selimiye Mosque, the Büyük Han and the Arasta bazaar a short walk away.

The division is not only a matter of politics. It shaped how the two halves grew: the south became a modern, EU-linked capital with an airport at Larnaca and a busy centre of business, and the north developed under a separate administration recognised only by Turkey. Each side calls the city by its own name and describes events with different words. A visitor does best to listen more than to talk, and to avoid taking sides in casual conversation.

There are quiet reminders of the shared past. Old street names appear in two languages, doorways show Ottoman and Venetian stone, and the same ring of walls encloses both sides. Talks about reunification have gone on for decades, and there is no short answer. For a few hours, a walk from Ledra Street across the checkpoint and back is a clear way to see how close the two halves are and how different they feel.

The Venetian walls are the city's main monument. They form a circle about 4.5 km around, with eleven bastions shaped like the points of a star, and three gates: Paphos Gate on the west, Famagusta Gate on the east, and Kyrenia Gate on the north. The bastions have Italian names and a Venetian lion or coat of arms is carved on some. The walls are not a museum in a park: buses and cars run alongside them, some bastions are gardens, and one is a football pitch.

Famagusta Gate is the best gate to see. It is entered by a long vaulted passage, dark and cool even in July, and it has been restored as a cultural centre for exhibitions. Paphos Gate is smaller and sits beside the Cyprus Museum, the island's main archaeology museum, whose neoclassical hall dates from the British period. Between them, the old town keeps a mix of buildings: Byzantine and Lusignan churches, Ottoman mosques and hans, Armenian churches, and 19th-century houses with wooden balconies.

Laiki Geitonia, the 'popular neighbourhood', is a small quarter of restored houses that was rebuilt in the 1980s to keep the old town's look and to draw people back. Its lanes now hold craft shops and terraces. It is a good example of how conservation works here: some buildings are original, others are careful copies, and the city has learned to live with both. The Leventis Museum, in an old house nearby, explains the layers of the town in one visit.

The Archbishop's Palace quarter shows another side. The Byzantine Museum holds a large collection of icons from the 9th century to the 19th, and next door St John's Cathedral, built in the 18th century, is covered inside with painted scenes. The exterior is plain; the inside is the point. Modern Nicosia adds a very different note: the Shacolas Tower on Ledra Street and the glass and concrete blocks of the new town show a city that has grown quickly beyond its walls.

Cypriot food sits between Greek and Turkish and Levantine cooking, and it is one of the reasons people enjoy Nicosia. The centre of it is meze, a meal built of many small dishes that arrive in waves. A full meze can run to more than twenty plates: olives, tahini and taramosalata, then grilled halloumi, sausages, lamb, grilled meat and often fish, and a tray of fruit to finish. It is usually ordered for the table, at a set price, and the waiter keeps bringing dishes until you say stop.

Halloumi is the best known product. It is a firm cheese made from sheep and goat milk, sometimes with cow milk, and mint, and it can be grilled or fried without melting. Other staples are souvlaki and sheftalia, the herbed minced-meat sausage wrapped in caul fat, and kleftiko, lamb slow-cooked in a sealed oven. Afelia is pork with red wine and crushed coriander seed; koupepia is rice and herbs in vine leaves; stifado is a sweet-sour stew of beef or rabbit and small onions. Village salad comes with almost every plate.

Bakeries sell a small round pastry called flaouna, filled with cheese and mint and traditional at Easter; koulouri, a ring of sesame bread; and cheese pies. Cypriot coffee is served in a small cup with the grounds still in it, and it comes in three sweetnesses: sketo (no sugar), metrio (medium) and glyko (sweet). Do not stir it; let the grounds settle. In summer, the iced freddo espresso is the drink of the day, and loukoumades, fried dough balls in honey syrup, are a favourite sweet.

Wine has a long history on the island. Commandaria, a sweet dessert wine made from sun-dried grapes in the Troodos foothills, is often described as one of the oldest named wines still in production. Zivania, a clear grape spirit, is drunk in small glasses after a meal. The wine scene has grown, and local grapes such as Xynisteri (white) and Maratheftiko (red) are now easier to find by the glass. On the northern side, you find Turkish Cypriot dishes such as hellim (the Turkish name for halloumi), kebabs, and sweets like lokma.

Nicosia's old town is a place of many faiths side by side. The Greek Orthodox Church is the largest, and the Archbishop of Cyprus is a powerful figure, both religious and political; Archbishop Makarios III was also the first president of the republic. The Maronite, Armenian and Latin communities have their own churches and schools in the city. Muslim communities, mostly Turkish Cypriot, have mosques on both sides of the line, and the 'Ömeriye Mosque' in the south is a former Augustinian church that was converted in the Ottoman period.

Religious buildings are working places, and visitors are guests. Cover your shoulders and knees, keep your voice low, and ask before you photograph inside. In an Orthodox church you may see icons kissed and candles lit; do not step in front of people who are praying. At a mosque, remove your shoes; women are asked to cover their hair; and the hours of prayer, especially Friday at midday, are not the time to visit. Some buildings on the northern side are open to visitors in the daytime, and some are not.

The calendar follows the Orthodox Church for most public holidays in the south. Easter is the biggest, with Holy Week processions, red-dyed eggs, lamb roasts and flaounes. Green Monday, the first day of Lent, is a public holiday with picnics and kites, and Kataklysmos, the Festival of the Flood, marks the day after Pentecost with water games. On 15 August, the Assumption is a public holiday in the worst of the heat. Dates move each year, so check the year's calendar.

Faith also shapes daily life in quiet ways: shop closing hours on Sundays, the sound of church bells, the call to prayer from northern mosques, a saint's day in a village. For a visitor these are best seen with respect and a little curiosity. Ask staff a question and you will usually get a friendly answer.

Nicosia is inland and low, without a sea breeze, and it is one of the hottest capitals in Europe in summer. July and August highs often reach 37–40°C. The city has adapted over centuries: thick stone walls, shaded courtyards, narrow lanes that trap cool air in the morning, and a long break in the middle of the day. Shops used to close from about 13:00 to 16:00 and many small shops still do in summer, and on Wednesday afternoons some close for the week.

For a visitor, the day works best in three parts. The morning, from about 08:00 to 11:00, is for walking the walls, the gates and the lanes. The middle of the day is for a museum, a long lunch and a rest, and the Cyprus Museum's air-conditioned galleries are the classic refuge. From about 17:30, the streets refill: people walk, sit on terraces, and eat late. Dinner starts around 19:30 and often runs to midnight.

In winter the pattern reverses. From December to February the days are mild, around 15–17°C, with cool nights and short, sharp rain. The Troodos mountains, about an hour away, can have snow in January and February. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for walking: March to May and October to November have warm, dry days and cooler evenings. The first rains usually arrive in November, and the light in autumn is soft and clear.

The rhythm matters for planning. A first-time visitor who tries to walk the walls at 14:00 in July will be sorry, and one who arrives at a taverna at 17:00 will find it empty. Aim for outdoor stops before 11:00 and after 17:30 in summer; keep the middle of the day for indoor stops; and give dinner two hours. Drink water regularly, wear a hat, and take a taxi between clusters when the heat rises.