Chroniclers
Leontios Machairas and
Diomede Strambaldi wrote that the church had been built by the Lakhas brothers (also known as Lakhanopoulos) in around 1360. These brothers were recorded as two "East Syrian", aka Nestorian merchants, who were known for their immense wealth. The chroniclers pointed out to the architecture and decorations of the building, reminiscent of the Southern French and Italian
Gothic churches of the time, hypothesizing that it may have been influenced by King
Peter I's visit to
Avignon in 1363. This version of the church's history represents the virtual consensus of scholars of medieval Famagusta, though scholar Michele Bacci has postulated a need to revise "name-identification and date of this church" as its architecture is reminiscent of the 12th–13th century Crusader architecture in
Palestine and
Syria. A historian of medieval Famagusta, Joseph Yacoub, has written that this must be the church mentioned as "Mart Maryam" in a 1581 letter written by the Nestorian
Metropolite of
Amid. After the
Ottoman capture of the city in the
Siege of Famagusta in 1571, the church was converted into a stable for camels, with worship being allowed on only one day of the year, the Feast of "St. George the Exiler", according to the records. By the 1930s, many
frescoes that were observed in 1899 had disappeared, according to Rupert Gunnis. Upon the takeover by the Greek Cypriots, the southern part of the church was repaired. Between 1937 and 1939, the rubble in the northern part was removed, and an excavation was carried out; the road to the west was also lowered to its level when the church was built. In 1947, further repairs were carried out. During the
intercommunal violence of 1963–64, Greek Cypriots left the fortified old town of Famagusta, and the church was used to house
Turkish Cypriot refugees until 1974. As of January 2015, the church was reportedly in disrepair. == Architecture ==