[ Apr.2015 ] We visited Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, inside the wall in Famagusta in Cyprus.
I could not believe it was a mosque as the building was nothing but a Gothic church.
I have seen some mosques which used to be churches, like Aya Sofia in Istanbul, but they were the Byzantine buildings of Orthodox churches.
I have never seen a mosque like this.
Because it was a mosque, we took off our shoes to enter and walked on the carpeted floor.
They made a mihrab around the middle of the nave and there was no altar and no statues.
All the paintings were apparently painted out.
They added a minaret outside.
This building was built between the end of 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century as St. Nicholas Cathedral.
It was not the recent Turkish invasion when they converted it into Mosque, but in the 16th century when Ottoman Turkey came to rule Cyprus.
It is interesting that they reuse the religious building by adjusting a little, though the style of the building is so different from the traditional mosques.
That reminded me of Mezquita in Cordoba in Spain, which looked like a mosque, but it is used as a cathedral.
