Kings of Jerusalem or Europe in a nutshell

To me, this slightly gawky synthesis of a Gothic high-medieval cathedral and a mosque (by the later addition of a minaret) represents the essence of what it means to be European. The church is magnificent.

It is the great cathedral of Famagusta, the St Nicolas church, where the Lusignan kings of Cyprus were crowned as titular kings of the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, long after any landholdings were retained. The fig trees outside is claimed to be 700 years old. After the Ottoman conquest it was made the Lala Mustafa Pasha mosque. The whitewashed inside retains the feeling of a gothic cathedral and was magnificent in it's feeling of serenity and calm.

I have many more pictures to show and I will come back to do so. But I may be off line for a few days, while relocating to the Gulf...