Reuse Potential of Three Monuments in the Walled City of Famagusta within Cultural Tourism Perspectives

It is undeniable that heritage buildings are containers of culture and identity of a region. Sustaining these buildings, through conserving them with their original characters, is necessary to protect the culture and the traditional lifestyles. In some cases, conserving and restoring old buildings, without adapting them, leads to loose some of their values, such as historical and economical values. Besides, if historical buildings are left without re-functioning, they become obsolete and deteriorated. Adaptive reuse of existing buildings can be one of the suitable treatment methods, to conserve the old buildings for fitting their present life to serve social purposes; whilst remaining as self-financing through giving them new functions. The new functions are expected to respect the values of buildings, history of buildings and their surroundings and also consider the architectural characters of them. Due to its geographic position, Cyprus had been attacked many times and became the significant centre of cultures, histories and different architectural styles. Therefore, protecting these significances for the next generations is necessary. Political and economic problems, regarding North Cyprus, lead to the financial limitations to conserve historical and heritage buildings. Hence, cultural tourists can play an important role as a tool for conserving heritage buildings in North Cyprus. The main aim of this study is the determination of the appropriate function for adaptive reuse of three monuments in the Walled City of Famagusta, which are selected by the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage of Cyprus for being 'financially supported by EU and implemented by UNDP-PFF' determined by Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage of Cyprus. The reason for choosing this aim is, that inappropriate functions for historic buildings in this region, can lead to destroy the identity and culture of the Walled City of Famagusta. The methodology which is chosen for this aim is evaluation survey and questionnaire. This study covers the theoretical background of conservation, adaptive reuse and also cultural tourism as financial income for conserving heritage buildings with the purpose of finding features which adaptive reuse projects should have. In order to analyse the three monuments and outline the reuse options according to historical and architectural features and also heritage values, a framework is created. Besides, given the fact that participation of the actors is a vital part of successful adaptive reuse projects, asking opinions of tourists, locals and experts is included as part of framework to find appropriate function for adaptive reuse of three monuments. The conclusion of this thesis illustrates the results which are achieved from both analyses and questionnaires for proposing appropriate functions for the three selected monuments. Keywords: Conservation, Adaptive Reuse, Cultural Tourism, Appropriate Functions, Othello Tower, Martinengo Bastion, Ravelin Bastion.