Larnaca

Larnaca stands on the southern coast of Cyprus beside a salt lake and a broad bay. The salt harvested from the lake gave the port the name Salinas in the Frankish period and became an important export. The church of Saint Lazarus, associated with the saint whom local tradition held to be a bishop of ancient Kition, gave the town a celebrated place of Christian worship.

Under Venetian rule, watchtowers around the bay and works protecting the salt lake formed part of the island's coastal defences. After the Ottoman conquest, Larnaca grew into Cyprus's principal commercial port and the residence of European consuls. An English consul is recorded on the island in 1605, and the merchants who gathered here maintained links with Aleppo and other Mediterranean ports. The church of Saint Lazarus, taken at the conquest, was sold back to the Orthodox community in 1589. Ships, salt and the households of foreign traders gave the town a distinctive place in Ottoman Cyprus.