Maintenance works on Famagusta gate on Nicosia’s Venetian walls will be completed by the end of the year, in time to be used for Cyprus’ EU presidency during the first half of 2026, Deputy Culture Minister Vasiliki Kassianidou said on Wednesday.

Kassianidou visited the site with director of the Antiquities Department Georgios Georgiou to be informed on the progress of maintenance and infrastructure upgrading works.

“Famagusta gate is one of the most important monuments of Nicosia, that dates back to the 16th century,” Kassianidou said.

The monument, which was being used as a cultural centre for the past 40 years, has recently closed after it flooded.

The cost of the works so far has reached half a million euros, which Kassianidou said did not include restrooms for visitors.

The restrooms, she added, would be built outside the monument and a tender would be announced soon, however they would not be ready for the presidency but were projected to be completed by next summer.

A tender opened on Wednesday for the maintenance of the next bastion on the Venetian walls, as a continuation of work already been done on the walls themselves.

“The Nicosia walls are a unique monument of cultural heritage. You can’t find such well preserved Mediaeval walls everywhere,” Kassianidou said.

She added that the Antiquities Department employed the best archaeologists and stonemasons for maintenance works.

Georgiou said that “the part of the walls in the north do not get the same care as they do here”.

“There were two points where the walls collapsed” in the north, however timely intervention through the bicommunal Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage restored them, Georgiou added.