BRUYN, Cornelis de. Scanderona and Famagusta.

 

Scanderona and Famagusta. 35 x27 cms. Two original folds. Plate 191 depicts the coastal town of Alexandrette......" which is the port of Aleppo, but besides that, of very little value, consisting only of a row of houses along the sea side, at the foot of a little hill. The air is so bad there , that not only strangers, but even the natives of the place sometimes die of a distemper caused by this air, which is a form of jaundice....." ......." from thence we passed by several other Boroughs and villages as also some little churches but of small importance and about noon we came to a village near Famagusta called Spigliotissa , where I took up my lodging. After dinner I went with two Grecians to view the outside of Famagusta (Plate 192). But because I approached too near it , the Turks cried to me from the Wall to retire, which I was forced to obey. From thence I went towards the seaside where I sat myself down on a small rising ground to take a draught of the City with all the speed imaginable: but I scarce begun my work, but the great heat of the sun, and may be also my fast walking, seized me with weakness which made me fall along on the ground, where I lay for

a quarter of an hour without sense or motion, But being a little came to myself again I finished my design, which nevertheless was not without much trouble, after which I returned with my two Greeks to the village from whence I came, and went to bed immediately. Whereas I could not take a view of the City that time, I went again the next Day to do it, About a third part of it lies along the sea side and is about a good half league in circumference, with two gates, whereof one is towards the land and the other towards the sea. The ramparts, which are yet almost entire and surrounded with a pretty deep ditch hewn out of the rock, but always dry, are made (as I said) after the manner of those in Rhodes, but are not much to be compared in beauty to them, for those of the City which we have just mentioned have much more Grandeur and Magnificence. The Mosque called St. Sophia which is seen in the middle of the copperplate 192 appears very beautiful, and as far as can be guessed and according to what is said of it, must be a magnificent building, and in the Spire which appears above the building is a great ornament to it. Near this on the left hand is another church turned into mosque by the infidels which appears very fine by reason of a Cupolo which is in the middle of it. There are yet many holes to be seen made by cannon bullets which beat down half of this Church when the town was battered by the invading infidels a century ago. The entrance into the harbour runs along the Castle and the walls of the town, and is so narrow that the ships cannot enter into it without taking their anchors within board, and the galleys their oars. The Turks are so mistrustful, with respect to this town, that they will not suffer any stranger to set foot in it, unless by chance when the Consul pays his respect to the Bassa, and comes thither sometimes with his Galleys. The Greeks themselves that live in the Island and used to live in this City dare not approach the Ramparts or Bulwarks, for if any were found there, they run the hazard of being forced to turn Turks........" Price: CyP 400