Nicosia: Europe's last divided capital

Divided since 1974 between the Republic of Cyprus to the south and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Nicosia remains the only capital still physically separated by a guarded border in the heart of the European Union.

The walled historic center can be explored on foot from both sides of the demarcation line.

The day begins south of the border, where the Byzantine Museum preserves icons and mosaics, some recovered from damaged or looted churches in the north after the division of 1974.

A short distance away, you just need to show an identity document to cross, since 2008, the pedestrian checkpoint on Ledra Street, the most commercial avenue of the city, and pass from the Greek-Cypriot side to the Turkish-Cypriot side in just a few steps.

On the other side, conquered in 1570 by the Ottomans, the Gothic Cathedral of Santa Sofia was consecrated as a mosque without losing its spires: today it is called the Selimiye Mosque.

Returning southward along the perimeter, star-shaped and built in the sixteenth century against the Ottomans, the Venetian Walls still enclose the entire historic center on both sides of the border.

From a café on Ledra Street you can see pass by, within minutes, tourists with cameras, residents heading to work on the other side, soldiers on checkpoint duty: three different ways of crossing the same border at the same moment.

The UN-patrolled buffer zone, in some stretches only a few meters wide, runs parallel to Ledra Street and remains frozen since 1974, with shop signs still legible behind chain-link fences.