The Churches of St. Catherine and of the Armenians, the mosques of Emerghié and of Arab Achmet also date from the close of the thirteenth century. Among the more numerous buildings of the fourteenth century the most noteworthy are the Cathedral of St. Nicholas at Famagusta (Figs. 80 and 81), with its three portals and two towers; the Church of St. Sophia at Famagusta (Fig. 82), the Premonstrant Monastery of Lapaïs, remarkable for the beauty and nobility of its abbatial buildings, which comprise a large three-aisled chapel, and several religious buildings at Paphos and at Limasol. At Rhodes there are a number of churches built in the fifteenth century after French models, which had no less a vogue for dwelling-houses than for religious and military architecture; in a word, architecture--civil, religious, or military--was French in all its manifestations. "The guns of the order still point from the embrasures of the towers, Soliman's stone cannon balls strew the neighbouring ground; sculptured on the house fronts are the blazons, and in many cases the French names, of their bygone owners. Involuntarily the mind travels back by the space of three centuries, reincorporating these forgotten worthies, and repeopling their dwelling-places. One half expects to see the emblazoned doors thrown open, to give egress to knightly owners, mustering for the last time under the banner of St. John."[27] [27] Melchior de Vogüé, _Les Églises de la Terre Sainte_. [Illustration: 82. RUINS OF THE CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA AT FAMAGUSTA (ISLAND OF CYPRUS)] CHAPTER X TOWERS AND STEEPLES--CHOIRS--CHAPELS The first steeples were round, on the model of the Greek and Byzantine cupolas, and modest in diameter, so that the bells they contained can only have been small ones. These bells were suspended from the summit of the tower, the portion of wall surrounding them being pierced by arcaded openings, and crowned by a long pyramidal roof.[28] [28] _Encyclopédie de l'Architecture et de la Construction_, article "Clocher," by Ed. Corroyer. Such towers were very frequently isolated from the body of the church. A large number of Italian churches, dating from all periods of the Middle Ages, have steeples at a considerable distance from the main building.