The Great Mosque
Point 14/15
1890s
Year of construction
Unknown architect
Architect
Since 1571, Cyprus, and with it Limassol, belonged to the Ottoman Empire, with Islam as main religion. However, the existing mosque near the mainmarket square was built at the end of the 19th century. The British administration, based on the principle of religious tolerance in the management of its territories, participated in its construction. Archaeological excavations revealed that the mosque stands on the foundation of a Paleo-Christian basilica.
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Let’s go around the mosque from the east and enter a small alley with the charming name Zik Zak. Here, during the reconstruction of the sewage system, massive stone semicircular foundations were discovered: these areapses, standard recesses of a Christian church where the altar is. The oldest parts belong to the 5th century AD, soon after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
From this time, an inscription has been preserved. Let us translate: “LordJ esus Christ, help your servant Pavlos Fasourios, amen!”
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Around the mosque, a small cemetery with carved tombstones remains, including the graves of Admiral Mehmet Effendi and Suleiman Pasha. The main mosque closed after the division of the island in 1974, but another mosque nearby on Ankara Street is open.
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