St Nicholas, Famagusta

This is one of a series of etchings done by F. Milveton Drake, who was invited to Cyprus by the administration as an engineer to help with a project. Drake gave special attention to the fortification of Famagusta and Nicosia. The etching depicts St Nicholas Cathedral at the main square of Famagusta. The Gothic arch featuring on the right hand side of the picture is what has been left of a two storey structure that used to be a chapel which accommodated the Greek Orthodox school on the second floor. Ahead of the entrance, the figure of a black slave appears entering the square. He is a descendant of African slaves brought into the city during Ottoman times. He follows a female whose dress signifies the beginning of an era in which elderly local women adopted all black outfits – a most conspicuous feature of the island’s social landscape so often attested in the photography of the twentieth century. In the foreground on the left, the rather familiar scene of a coffee shop manifests itself in interesting ethnographic detail. The presence of a Greek and a Turk, in black and white baggy trousers respectively, bears testimony to the fact that the Greeks started inhabiting the walled city and frequenting its coffee shops. A picture of unobstructed cohabitation is faithfully represented by the artist.