Bandabuliya

Municipal Bazaar

Location

Nicosia, Cyprus

35.10316 , 33.21537

Author

Odesseas Tsagkarides

Architect

Built in

1932

Bandabuliya market was built between 1930 and 1932, during the British occupation. It was the main covered municipal market in Northern Nicosia. In the bazaar, people could find everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to meats and other products. It was the most crowded and significant market in Nicosia.

The yard of St Sophia (Selimiye) and St Nicolas church (Bedestan) in Nicosia was used as the main trading place in Nicosia during Venetian rule (1489-1570) in Cyprus. People from Nicosia entered the walled city to sell their products and textiles, using the area for their weekly local market. Due to population growth and its rising popularity, the market became a permanent fixture and people from all around Cyprus travelled to Nicosia in order to sell their goods or buy products at the Bandabulya market.

Bandabuliya market was built between 1930 and 1932, during the British occupation. It was the main covered municipal market in Northern Nicosia. In the bazaar, people could find everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to meats and other products. It was the most crowded and significant market in Nicosia. It wasn’t only used as a market; it was a public space where the locals could gather and take their kids for ice cream on the weekends.

In the early 1970s, due to the Cyprus conflict, new residential areas started to be built outside the walled city. Gradually, the market started to be neglected by the locals. Over the years, the shops closed down and the building became structurally unsafe. In 2010, the Bandabuliya market closed down. With the support of the UNDP-PFF, it was renovated and re-opened in June 2012 with 77 stalls for sellers, a café, bookshops and a small theatre for performances.

Researcher Elia Neophytou

Function

1932Market

2018 Market

Ownership

1932 Municipality

2018 Municipality

Condition

1932 Good

2018 Good

Property Management

1932

2018

Form of government

1932 Colonial Government (British Empire)

2018 Presidential Republic (Republic of Cyprus)

Spatial Planning Agency

1932

2018

Type of heritage and protection

1932 Local monument

2018 Local monument

Interview with Costas Georgiou

Architect

Transcription
It was designed by Odysseas Tsagkarides who was the municipal engineer in the 30s. Bandabulya was the center of Nicosia, it had many art deco elements with a revolutionary character because of its construction and the way Tsagkarides worked. It had two entrances one of each was on Ermou Street. The shops were mixed you could find a Turkish Cypriot shop next to a Greek Cypriot shop, an Armenian next to a Maronite shop, there were no divides then.

Interview with Evren

Local

Transcription
Historically it was a vegetable bazar but the most important is that the Bandabuliya is one of the three landmarks in the city. I remember it from my childhood, which is roughly in the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century, people where going there to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, also my father, and he took me with him because in front and inside there where also sellers who had ice cream for the kids.