I went to Famagusta not only to get to know Varosha - an abandoned area of the city, where no one still lives, but also just to look at its ancient cathedrals and … a fortress, unique in its architecture and military power. It is known that when the Knights Templar sold Cyprus to the Venetians, they settled there for a long time and very firmly. And what kind of strongholds they have not built there! Naturally, it was very interesting to see all this with my own eyes and at the same time to imagine how exactly the events of that era unfolded on these stones. Moreover, they saw the stones there, and indeed, one might say, historical events and, moreover, in the most direct way connected with another important event - the Battle of Lepanto, about which a very interesting article on VO has already been once.
Leonardo da Vinci, who visited Cyprus in 1481, took an active part in the design of the defensive structures of Famagusta. Well, Venetian lions are still on the island!
And it so happened that, being at the height of its power, in February 1570, the Ottoman Empire "ordered" Venice to give it the island of Cyprus - the only Levantine land that still remained in the hands of the Europeans. The Republic proudly refused, but that meant a war that culminated in the famous Battle of Lepanto, the most dramatic of the many battles Venice fought to contain Turkish expansion in the Mediterranean and Europe.
Coin of the reign of Henry II de Lusignan in Cyprus.
Famagusta at that time was a flourishing trading city of the Levant, and it was founded three centuries earlier by the French - veterans of the Crusades. That is why there were so many buildings in a purely Gothic style in it. It was adorned by both palaces and cathedrals, which now the Venetians hastened to shelter from the fire of Turkish cannons with wooden beams and heaps of sandbags. On the walls and bastions of the fortress, the Venetians put up 500 cannons of all calibers, to which the Turks responded with a number of cannons exceeding this number three times! And as always, since the capture of Constantinople, they relied on huge bombards that fired stone cannonballs.
These were the stone cores that were fired at that time! The calculation was also on the fact that the core, when it hit something solid, scattered to pieces.
But the fortifications of Famagusta, which were built under the leadership of the then famous architect Sanmikieli, were good, if not impregnable. The fortress walls were almost four kilometers long, were fortified at the corners with powerful bastions, between which there were ten donjons and were picked up by embankments 30 meters wide, which made them impenetrable for any artillery. There were casemates inside the embankments. Inside the fortress, above the walls, there were about a dozen of forts "cavalieri" (cavalieri - "knights" or "horsemen" (Italian)), surrounded by their own ditches, on the counter-escarp of which there were trenches for advanced riflemen. Finally, in the most probable direction of attack was the impressive size of Fort Andruzzi, in front of which there was another fort, Rivellino, just below.
The cannon of those distant years. As you can see, it is made of iron and is bound with thick hoops for strength. Nearby are iron cannonballs that the Venetians fired.
The landing operation on the island of Cyprus began on July 1, 1570, on the virtually undefended coastline between Limassol and Larnaca. After that, Turkish troops headed inland to the capital Nicosia, which had powerful fortifications and a large garrison, and captured it just two months after the start of the siege. At the same time, the Turks immediately killed all its defenders and the civilian population: in just one day, 20,000 people were killed there. Kyrenia, a powerful fortress on the northern part of the island, frightened by this atrocity, then immediately surrendered, although it had an order to fight to the last, and … the Turks did not touch its inhabitants! There was only one Famagusta left. This walled city rejected the offer of surrender, although everyone understood that the city was clearly doomed to certain death, unless urgent assistance was provided to it by troops. The fact is that the Turkish army near the city gradually reached a number of 200,000 people, while the Venetian garrison numbered no more than seven thousand soldiers.
Schematic drawing of the Famagusta fortress from 1703.
In the meantime, the Venetian government managed to conclude an agreement with Spain, the Papal State and a number of small Italian principalities. The fleet of the newly born "League" gathered in the port of Souda (on the island of Crete) at the very beginning of August, then to move to the island of Cyprus. However, when the fleet had passed half the way by September 20, 1570, the commander of the Spanish squadron, Andrea Doria, announced that the sailing season was coming to an end, and ordered his ships to return to Spain for the winter. The rest of the captains simply did not dare to move to Cyprus without the support of the Spaniards, so the release of Famagusta never took place!
One of the League's galleases.
Girolamo Zane, the commander of the fleet of the Republic of San Marco, was almost disgraced immediately upon returning to Venice, but Famagusta was left without help, the Venetian government sent her the most solemn promises that help was about to come.
Sarcophagus of one of the noble Venetians. In the distance in the square one can see another large stone core.
Meanwhile, on May 19, 1,500 Turkish cannons began shelling, unprecedented in their power, which continued continuously day and night for seventy-two days. At the same time, Mustafa started a "mine war". Turkish sappers began to dig the longest underground tunnels, which ran deep under the defensive ditch, and filled them with a huge amount of gunpowder. Whole positions exploded under the feet of the Venetians, and immediately after the explosion, the Turks rapidly rushed to attack. Particularly heavy damage was caused to the Venetians by two mines: one detonated on June 21, which made a breach in the corner bastion of the Arsenal, and the other, which on June 29 demolished part of the wall at Fort Rivellino.
Bastion of St. Luke in Famagusta.
So month after month passed. The garrison repulsed all attacks, but help never came. For ten months the garrison of the fortress, the Venetians who were melting day by day, led by the conductor or captain general (we would call him governor now) Mark Antonio Bragadin, Lorenzo Tiepolo and General Astorre Baglioni, resisted a huge Turkish army. One of the attacks was particularly hot. The Turks once again blew up a section of the wall. They managed to climb the wall of Fort Rivellino and gain a foothold there. And then Captain Roberto Malvezzi fled down the stairs to the basement of the fort, where the ammunition was kept. There he set fire to the fuse and rushed to the exit, hoping to escape. Then he rushed up the stairs to get out into the air. A few seconds later, an explosion followed: from the depths of Rivellino, like from a volcano, a mixture of fire, stones and earth burst out. The bastion collapsed and slid into the moat along with the attackers and defenders. It was a hot afternoon on July 9, 1571, and the Turks were so exhausted by the attack and intimidated by the courage of the defenders of Famagusta that they retreated and did not attack again that day. In total, more than a thousand people died at the same time on the bastion! Malvezzi was searched for and … found four hundred years later, when they carried out excavations at the site of the Cypriot port. It was then that his nightmare grave was opened - a section of the gallery, which was spared by the explosion, but which the landslide blocked on both sides. It was in it that they found human remains, as well as a gold ring and a buckle of an officer of the Venetian Republic - all that remained of Roberto Malvezzi, who was trapped there!
When the Turks landed troops in Cyprus, it caused something of a shock in Venice. They even began to build fortifications along the coast, expecting the next blow right here. Therefore, the Venetians simply could not support Cyprus with troops. But Lala Mustafa, who besieged Famagusta, meanwhile received very solid reinforcements. Both the island and Famagusta itself would have fallen at the feet of Pasha Mustafa (after whom the mosque in Famagusta is named, built in the Christian church of St. Nicholas, built under the Lusignan kings), if both Bragadin and his comrades-in-arms were not gifted and decisive military leaders …
Tombstones of Turkish military leaders in the Larnaca fort.
Famagusta's fortifications were so powerful that it can be seen to this day. But reinforcements with manpower from Venice were required, and hopes for this were weakening every day. From there it was reported that the fleet was heading for Messina, where all the forces of the League were assembled. But … it was far from here. And fierce battles at the walls of the city went on every day. And there were already too few people for such a fortress in Famagusta - no more than 2000 people, many of whom were wounded! On July 31, Mustafa ordered a powerful mine to blow up the Arsenal bastion and a large piece of the adjacent wall. All the defenders in this area were swallowed up by a huge landslide, but other Venetians immediately found themselves in complete darkness, and "they fought not like people, but like giants" (Fustafa later wrote, justifying himself, in a report to the Sultan), and they repulsed this onslaught too. … The Turks met the dawn on August 1 in complete exhaustion, leaving behind a battlefield strewn with the bodies of the dead, among whom was Mustafa's son; and then for the first time the guns fell silent.
Here is a photo of the Famagusta fortress moat covered with stone. To climb the wall, you first had to go down into it, and then go upstairs. To do the first was difficult even without any war. About the second, and even under the shots, even to think about it was scary.
But the situation in the city was very difficult. The food was running out. Residents of the city openly demanded his surrender. After consulting with other commanders, Bragadin decided to negotiate, fortunately, Mustafa himself was the first to turn to him with this proposal. But he refused to meet with the Turkish envoy in person. Was it pride or a premonition of your own terrible fate? In any case, fate turned out to be very cruel to him, so if he knew what would happen to him later, he would certainly have chosen death in battle. But, be that as it may, but on August 1, 1571, an armistice was signed and the cannons were already completely silent.
The plenipotentiary representative of Lala Mustafa prepared an act of surrender, which, among other things, promised in the name of God and the Sultan to comply with all paragraphs of this act. Safe transportation of all survivors to Sitia on the island of Crete was promised; unhindered, under the rumble of drums, the passage of Venetian soldiers to the ships, with fluttering banners, all guns, personal weapons, luggage, as well as their wives and children; Cypriots who wished to leave with the Venetians were allowed free exit, just as complete safety was guaranteed for those Italians who wanted to stay in Famagusta; and finally, the Cypriots were given two years to decide whether to stay on the island under Turkish rule, or move to any other place … at the expense of the Turkish government. The conditions, as you can see, are very honorable and quite acceptable. Together with this act, Bragadin was also brought with letters of protection, guaranteeing him and his people a trip to Crete.
This moat is not so intimidating. But imagine that five hundred years ago it was only twice as deep …
Boarding the ships began on August 2, and by the 5th it was all over. There remained a "trifle": Bragadin had to give Mustafa the keys to the city. This was the rule of generally accepted military etiquette of that time, and Mustafa said that he was ready to meet with Bragadin personally for this and would even consider it an honor.
Mark Antonia Bragadin, portrait by Tintoretto.
The reception given to him and to all the Venetian commanders was at first very welcoming. Pasha seated the "guests" in front of him, the conversation began, and then, as soon as Bragadin handed him the keys, the Pasha suddenly changed his tone and began to accuse the Venetians of the villainous killing of Turkish slaves who were in the fortress. Then he asked where the provisions and ammunition were stored in the fortress? And when he was told that there was nothing, he was completely furious. "Why didn't you, dog, surrender the city to me earlier and ruin so many of my people?" - he shouted and ordered all his "guests" to be seized, despite the security certificates issued to them. Then he personally cut off Bragadin's ear, and ordered the second to be cut off to the soldier; after which he gave the order to kill all who appeared to him in the tent, and Astorre Baglioni showed the severed head to his army with the words: "Here is the head of the great defender of Famagusta!"
Inside, the ancient Byzantine churches are amazingly beautifully painted. Probably, Bragadin's soldiers came here, looked at all this and drew strength from it …
Meanwhile, Turkish soldiers rushed into the city, where they killed all the men in a row and raped Cypriot women; and then attacked the ships preparing to sail with the refugees to Crete. Both women, children and men - all were enslaved and sent some to the markets of Istanbul, some rowers to galleys. In front of Lal Mustafa's tent, a whole mound of severed heads grew (more than three hundred and fifty Venetians were killed), and Lorenzo Tiepolo and the Greek captain Manoli Spilioti were first hanged and then quartered; after which their remains were thrown to the dogs.
Monument to Bragadin at his resting place in Venice.
Bragadin was "lucky" in comparison with them. Although he lost both ears, eight days later Mustafa himself, together with one of the muftis, honored him with his visit and … offered to become a Muslim and thus save his life. In response, he was told that he was a dishonest person, well, and much more that the enraged Pasha did not tell anyone. But … he ordered the execution of Brigadin with the most cruel execution that a perverted Turkish fantasy was only capable of. On August 15, in order to amuse the army, he was first forced to walk several times to the batteries with a huge basket of earth and stones, while the soldiers tripped him and laughed when he fell. Then they tied the galley to the yacht, and raised it so that it could be seen by the Christian slaves who were on the ships, and shouted: "Do you not see your armada … do you see the help of Famagusta?.." Then from him, naked and tied to the yard, skinned alive in the presence of Lal Mustafa himself, and the corpse itself was dismembered into pieces! Moreover, they tried to prolong the torment of the victim, so when they flayed his skin to the waist, Bragidin was still alive!
The citadel of the fortress is “Othello's castle”. The entrance to the citadel is guarded by the winged lion of St. Mark, a symbol of the Venetian Empire, which has been preserved since the 15th century.
Then the skinless parts of the body of the executed hero were distributed between the units of the Turkish army - this was at that time a kind of "fetishism" was practiced in it, and the skin was stuffed with straw, sewn up (everything is just like in the fairy tale about Ali Baba from "A Thousand and One Nights"), dressed up in clothes and even put a fur hat on their heads. Then this terrible figure was taken on horseback throughout Famagusta to instill even greater fear in his already completely demoralized population. The skins and heads of Astorre Baglioni and General Martinengo, as well as castellan Andrea Bragadin, were also transported along the entire Asian coast until they reached Istanbul.
Cathedral of st. Nicholas - today the Lala-Mustafa Pasha mosque, that is, the Turkish military leader for his actions was rewarded "in a very worthy way"!
In Istanbul, the remains of Bragadin … were "exhibited" for several years, but then they were kidnapped by Christians (this is, without a doubt, a ready-made plot for an adventure novel!) And taken to Venice. Here they were buried with honors, first in the Church of St. George, and then reburied in the Church of Saints John and Paul, where they are today. Even at that cruel time, there were disputes about what caused such cruelty of the Turkish commander, who justified himself by the fact that Bragadin was guilty of killing Turkish prisoners and that the Venetians on ships could, they say, capture them and sell Turkish crews into slavery. But, most likely, the reason was his wounded pride, because his two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers could not cope with a handful of mercenaries for so long, which, in comparison with his army, was indeed a handful - 7 thousand people. Moreover, he lost 52 thousand soldiers at the walls of the city, that is, more than seven people for one enemy soldier! However, there was also a "good side" to all this. Having heard stories about the "horrors of Famagusta", the soldiers of the League at the Battle of Lepanto fiercely attacked the Turks and at the same time shouted: "Revenge for Bragadin!"
