[3][better source needed] The fortifications were designed by a number of military engineers, including Michele Sanmicheli and his nephew Giovanni Girolamo Sammichele.

The latter arrived in Famagusta in around 1550, and he designed the Martinengo Bastion, which served as a prototype for various other fortifications in Europe and America.

[6] The Fourth Ottoman–Venetian War broke out in 1570, when an Ottoman force invaded Cyprus and took control of most of the island including Nicosia within a few months.

Although terms were agreed and the inhabitants began to evacuate the city, at the surrender ceremony Lala Mustafa Pasha learned that some Muslim prisoners had been killed and he had the Venetian commander Marco Antonio Bragadin mutilated and flayed alive, and the remaining Christians in the city were massacred.

The city began to expand outside its walls in the late Ottoman period, and this increased after Cyprus fell under British rule.