Descriptions written by contemporaries or near-conteporaries of Nicosia under its Lusignan and Venetian rulers give a vivid idea of the aristocratic way of life and of the city’s gardens, fountains, churches and streets. Yet, apart from one or two prominent buildings, the physical remains of the medieval city seem largely to have vanished, along with the King’s pet ostrich and the leopards that he kept for hunting. It has not, however, vanished entirely. Some moulded windows and doorways do survive in the walled city, and some buildings are buried beneath the modern ones. Archaeologists and historians have discovered traces in excavations and the evidence of chronicles, tomb-stones, coats-of-arms and coins has helped them to reconstruct not only the history of the era but something of its setting.