Cyprus · Nicosia District · Nicosia
Yeni Jami, Nicosia — Area Guide & Where to Stay
A Gothic stair tower still stands beside the Yeni Cami, the mosque that names Yeni Jami, a quarter in the north-east of walled Nicosia.
About Yeni Jami
Where to stay in Yeni Jami
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Yeni Jami fills a few residential blocks in the north-east of the walled city of Nicosia, where the frontages are houses, tombs, and a school. The Yeni Cami sits between Yenicami Sokak and Kuruçeşme Sokak, and a passage through its courtyard once carried the walk between them. Reach it from the Kyrenia Gate.
That is the nearest of the three Venetian gates, a few hundred metres west along the north wall, and the lanes inside the quarter run past courtyard doors rather than shopfronts. You will want this quarter for the stonework and the graves, not for a room in it.
About Yeni Jami
What are the main landmarks in Yeni Jami?
Yeni Jami takes its name from the Yeni Cami at 8 Yenicami Sokak, cut stone raised in 1898-1899 about twenty metres from the Gothic ruin that came before it. A medieval arch frames the door. Above it a marble tablet with black lettering on a green border carries the Hijri year 1316, and three arches running north to south hold up the roof of the prayer hall.
Four cut-stone türbe stand east and north-east of the mosque, two of them across the road, and one keeps the marble sarcophagus of Menteşzade Hacı İsmail Ağa. Evkaf raised the present minaret in 1979.
What is the history of Yeni Jami?
Yeni Jami is one of the 24 historic quarters inside the Venetian walls of Nicosia, and the Ottomans knew its mosque as Cami-i Cedid. The Gothic church here became a mosque in 1571, a year after the Ottoman conquest. Windows cut into its lower storey weakened the walls, and in 1740 Menteşzade Hacı İsmail Ağa had the ground dug out beneath them after dreaming of treasure.
The building fell. The quarter complained, and Istanbul sent a ferman for his head. In 1923 the quarter reached past the walls, and the ground beyond took the name Çağlayan from the restaurant of Hüseyin Çağlayan, grandfather of the designer Hussein Chalayan.
Where is Yeni Jami?
Yeni Jami runs from the north-east of walled Nicosia out past the Loredano bastion, with Yenişehir north and west, Kaimakli east, and Haydar Pasha south.
More areas in Nicosia
Updated September 2026