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Buğday Mosque/Public Center

The Mosque/Public Center was locked and closed to the public and visitors on the grounds that it would be used as a Mosque during the Pandemic period, and it is still kept closed!

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Do you have any personal or family memories related to Buğday Mosque/Public Center between 1964 and 2000?

Did you attend any events held there between 2011-2020?

Do you know that Buğday Mosque/Public Center has been closed to the public and tourists and kept under lock and key as of 2021?

Do you want Buğday Mosque/Public Center to be used for the cultural, artistic and social activities it used to be and to be reintroduced to tourism?

More information

This monumental structure, known as the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, was completed in the 1360s, resembles a Greek Cathedral, and is one of the largest and best-preserved churches among the Gothic buildings in the Famagusta region. After the Ottoman conquest in 1571, it was converted into a mosque by adding a minaret, and with the beginning of the British period in 1878, it was used as a wheat, potato and orange warehouse. That's why it was called Buğday Mosque by the local people. Buğday Mosque took on a legendary role, especially between 1964 and 1974, when Turkish Cypriots had to live under isolated conditions in the Famagusta Walled City enclave. Almost all engagement and marriage ceremonies, concerts, theater plays, exhibitions, fashion shows, school performances and solidarity parties during that period were organized in this place. For this reason, it was called the Community Center and was immortalized in social memory with the commemorative photographs in the family albums of the people of Famagusta. The building, which was used as a shelter by civilians coming from Outside the Walls during the 1974 war, continued its function as a Community Center until the early 1980s, and was later converted into a Public Library. The building, which was used until the early 2000s, was then kept empty, and after the conservation work in 2010, it fulfilled the function of the old Community Center from 2011 until the pandemic period of 2020, hosting many various and colorful events and becoming a frequent destination for tourists.

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