In the Ottoman period, the places where cloth, jewelery and various precious goods were bought and sold, covered with domes of equal size and having the quality of a kind of covered bazaar, were called covered bazaars.

The first examples are found in Anatolia at the beginning of the 13th century. The covered bazaar known in Nicosia is located in the Surlariçi region.

The building, which is known to have a history of more than a thousand years and is located right next to the Selimiye Mosque, started to be used as a covered bazaar with the Ottoman administration.

The building, which was used as a kind of bazaar, or covered bazaar, during the Ottoman period, today serves as a cultural center.