According to Assyrian sources of the seventh century BC, Nicosia was a city called Ledra. In about 300 BC, the son of the Egyptian king Ptolemy, Lefkos, rebuilt the city, and his name is immortalized in the modern local name of Lefkosa (Turkish) or Lefkosia (Greek). Nicosia is the French name for the city and is thought to have appeared in the late 1100s. The name is mainly used by foreigners.

Nicosia is the capital of Cyprus and is currently the largest and most densely populated city on the island. It is also today divided into the Turkish and Greek sectors by a border known as the green line, which runs east-west.

In 1191, Richard the Lionheart, on the way to the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, captured the island in response to actions against his fleet by the King of Cyprus. It was in Cyprus that Richard married Berengaria of Navarre, who was chosen as his wife by his mother, Queen Eleonora of Aquitaine. Cyprus remained under the rule of Richard for only one year.

In 1192, he sold it to the Knights Templar who ruled the island from Nicosia. Life under the Templars was hard, and soon they ran into the hatred of the islanders. Unable to hold the island by force, the Templars pleaded with Richard to take back the island which quickly sold it to Guy de Lusignan who had lost his reign of Jerusalem.

Nicosia has been the capital of Cyprus ever since, and thrived during the Lusignano era. Churches and palaces were built and the city grew in size and population. This important period of the city's history ended in 1489 when the Venetians conquered Cyprus.

The Venetians demolished most of the Lusignano monuments, including churches and palaces, and used masonry to fortify the city against attempts by Ottoman invasion. In 1567, just before the Ottomans conquered Cyprus, the Venetians began building new protective walls in place of the ancient Lusignano walls that surrounded the city, in order to defend Nicosia. A famous Venetian engineer, Guillio Savorignano designed the plans for the walls. They were to have a circumference of three miles, 11 bastions, each similar to a castle and three gates. The remains of the walls still surround the old city today. The three gates were the Kyrenia gate to the north, the Famagusta gate to the east and the Paphos gate to the west. The Gate of Kyrenia is still intact today.

To build the walls, the Venetians demolished houses, palaces, monasteries and churches outside the city's three-mile circumference, and used their stone in building the walls. As a result, there is no trace of the pre-existing medieval settlement. However, their efforts did not prevent the island from falling into the hands of the forces of the Ottoman admiral Lala Mustafa Pasha in 1570. This event prevented the completion of the walls.

After the conquest, the Ottomans built mosques, baths and other institutions to meet the needs of its new masters.