Standing by a steep cobbled street running directly to the Kyrenia Harbour, it is named after the Ottoman Governor of Cyprus Agha Cafer Pasha who donated the land and upon whose wish the mosque was built in 1589-90.
Made of hewn stones, the mosque, is built in an obviously Ottoman style, although some sources claim the building was converted from a Lusignan warehouse. The cut stone rectangular construction has three main rooms and is furnished with a single minaret, in the northwest corner where there is a marble inscription with Agha Cafer Pasha's history.
It is the biggest house of worship amongst the three Kyrenia town mosques, with the smaller Yazicizade and Acemzade mosques located in the Turkish quarter in upper Kyrenia. At the southeast of the mosque is the Hasan Kavizade Huseyn Efendi fountain, built in 1841.
When Colonel Manifold, an eccentric Englishman, built his house in Kyrenia just behind the mosque, he was disturbed by the callings to prayer by the hotza of Cafer pasha mosque. So, he offered the Turkish community 500 pounds the remove, stone by stone, the mosque to a place outside the town!
Agha Cafer Pasha Mosque is frequented by Muslim worshippers to date.
PHT_11848 > Edmond Torikian, Agha Cafer Pasha Mosque, Chromogenic Color Negative, 6x6 cm, 20th Century
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
The 'Did you Know' series is supported by The Hellenic Initiative Canada.
