Famagusta was the seat of a Latin diocese from the twelfth century and had residential bishops till the end of the sixteenth. The city is protected by ramparts which encircle the town and the citadel castle guarding the harbour, the best in Cyprus. This citadel or Othello's tower is the first main focus of attention for visitors.

After 1400, rival factions of Genoese and Venetian merchants settled there. The Genoese caused much strife until finally the Venetians took command of all Cyprus and transferred the capital from Nicosia to Famagusta in 1489. The Venetians were in command for 82 years and it was from Famagusta that the whole island was governed.

The invention of gun-powder and the use of cannon made it necessary for the Venetians to remodel the entire defences for the use of artillery, the new type of warfare. The mediaeval square towers were replaced with round ones and all along the walls and citadels numerous cannon portholes were inserted.

The Ottoman armada arrived outside the town in 1570 and put it under siege for a year. In 1571 not only Famagusta, but all Cyprus was under Ottoman Turkish rule and remained so until 1878. The end of the British colonial rule in 1960 led to the intensification of inter-communal strife between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots which concluded in 1974 with the Turkish-Cypriot rule in North Cyprus.

The new town of Famagusta (also known as Marash or Varosha) lies just to the south of the walled old-city of Famagusta.