In 1567 the Venetians decided to fortify the city of Nicosia. This time Julio Savorgnano, brother of Ascanio arrives on the island. Savorgnano is an architect and engineer and he design new fortifications for the city according to contemporary defense methods.

“ Savorgnano, who was a man of a lively and understanding spirit, took shipping as soon as ever he had his dispatches. Scarcely was he arrived on the island, but began to surround it, and view those places which most needed to fortified, with such an exact diligence as answered the good opinion the Senate had of him”.

“He thought at first to built new walls and raise new forts to the city of Nicosia, being the capital of the Kingdom, situated in the midst of the island, and was then about four miles in compass. The Nobility made their usual residence there, the Richest of the inhabitants rendered her the most wealthy and important place of all the country and had she been put in a capacity to sustain a siege, might have proved, by reason of its greatness most commodious for a retreat to the country-people in a time of war. Neither did the change, nor difficulty of the enterprise, which had always deterred the preceding governors, discourage Savorgnano”.

D. B. Lorrini, Delle Fortificationi, Venetia, 1597 AD.

The new walls have the shape of a star with eleven bastions. The heart shape design of the bastion is more suitable for the new artillery and a better control for the defenders. The walls have only three gates, to the North Kyrenia Gate, to the west Paphos Gate and to the east Famagusta Gate that is the larger and was also named Porta Julia in honor of the architect.

The new walls of Nicosia are considered as the prototype of the renaissance military architecture.