Selimiye Mosque (St. Sophia Cathedral)

The Hagia Sophia Cathedral was a Latin Catholic Cathedral with early Gothic and French architectural features for the first time in the Middle East. It is made of limestone blocks brought from the province of Kyrenia. Its monumental doors and carved stone windows are its most striking features and are a striking example of Gothic art in the Mediterranean region. It was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century. Throughout history; The Lusignan princes were crowned, and this was the site of the Trials of the Knights Templar in 1310; Peter Thomas gathered all the Greek Orthodox bishops of Cyprus here in 1359, closed them down and tried to convert. It was the largest church in the Eastern Mediterranean from the rise of Islam to the late Ottoman period.