Nicosia Master Plan for the Historic Quarters of Selimiye and Omeriye in Cyprus: A Comparative Evaluation

Following the division of Cyprus in 1974 between the Greek Cypriot (South) and Turkish Cypriot (North) Communities, the island has been dealing with a pluralism of social, economic, political and administrative concerns affecting its heritage as well as heritage management. These concerns are particularly visible in the capital of Nicosia, where the historic core of the city has been equally divided between the two communities and has been managed by separate municipal bodies since then. The Nicosia Master Plan (NMP) was introduced as a bi-communal initiative to assist in collaborative management of the city’s heritage, and to prepare its historic core for a possible future event of re-unification.

Through the assessment of selected NMP initiatives meant for the historic quarters of Selimiye and Omeriye respectively, this paper attempts to critically examine the impact of division (prompted by conflict) on the heritage of Nicosia. This is achieved through evaluation of the effectiveness of NMP’s efforts on each side of the Cypriot divide. The hypothesis here is that the existing buffer zone significantly impacts its adjacent areas, whereby buildings with closer proximity to the border suffer the most. Despite NMP’s overall contribution in safeguarding a significant part of the city’s historic urban core, the findings demonstrate a departure from its broader bi-communal heritage protection trajectory. Furthermore, novel insights into the use of specific heritage rehabilitation methods are presented and critically discussed, shedding light into the future – pertaining to their impending impact, and on the ways these could assist the heritage protection of the walled city.