Kumarcılar Han.

Kumarcılar Hanı · Lefkoşa

Tier IV · Also here

The smaller inn opposite Büyük Han, restored in 2018.

What to see at Kumarcılar Han

  • A two-storey han of cut stone on a trapezoid plan, with its barrel-vaulted rooms set around a central courtyard.
  • From the street the vault ends show as rounded humps above the wall.
  • Just inside the entrance a doorway arch, Venetian or Lusignan, survives from the medieval remains the han was built over.
  • It had 52 rooms, and 44 survive.

History of Kumarcılar Han

1748
The oldest record, of 31 March, lists it as Han-ı Kumarî, held by the Kılıç Ali Paşa foundation.
1811–1836
The court records call it Kumarcı Hanı.
1881
Kitchener's map names it Küçük Han, the small han.
1937–57
A first restoration is carried out, and the han is listed as an antiquity.

Visiting Kumarcılar Han

Allow about half an hour. Kumarcılar Han faces Büyük Han across Asmaaltı Square in the walled city of Lefkoşa (Nicosia). A car park is mapped about 50 m away, and intercity buses stop at Kyrenia Gate, about 500 m on foot.

About the Kumarcılar Han 3D model

The 3D model is work in progress and has not yet passed our quality check. Built without a site visit, it takes its plan from the restoration drawings and its heights from photographs, good to about 5 %. The west and north fronts and the roof are inferred.

Monuments near Kumarcılar Han

  • Büyük Hanabout 100 m southThe larger Ottoman caravanserai of 1572, built around a courtyard with a mosque.
  • Bedestenabout 150 m south-eastA church that grew from a 6th-century basilica into an Ottoman covered market.
  • Selimiye Mosqueabout 200 m eastLefkoşa's Gothic cathedral, now a mosque with two minarets.