In Famagusta, a Bishopric was established in the late 12th century and Armenians lived around the Syrian quarter. Historical documents suggest the presence of an important monastic and theological centre there, at which Saint Nerses Lampronatsi (1153–1198) is said to have studied; of the three Armenian churches of walled Famagusta ["Sourp Asdvadzadzin" "(Mother of God)", "Sourp Sarkis" "(Saint Sergius)" and "Sourp Khach" "(Holy Cross)" – believed to be the unidentified church between the Carmelite church and Saint Anne], only Ganchvor church survives, built in 1346. During the Middle Ages, Armenians in Cyprus were actively engaged in commerce, while some of them formed military garrisons in Kyrenia (1322) and elsewhere. A number of Armenians defended the Frankish Kingdom of Cyprus against the Genoese (1373) at Xeros, against the Saracens (1425) at Stylli village and against the Mamelukes (1426) in Limassol and Khirokitia. By 1425, the renowned Magaravank – originally the Coptic monastery of Saint Makarios near Halevga (Pentadhaktylos region) – came under Armenian possession, as did sometime before 1504 the Benedictine/Carthusian nunnery of Notre Dame de Tyre or Tortosa ("Sourp Asdvadzadzin") in walled Nicosia; many of its nuns had been of Armenian origin (such as princess Fimie, daughter of the Armenian King Hayton II). During the Latin Era, there was also a small number of Armenian Catholics in Nicosia, Famagusta and the Bellapais Abbey, where Lord Hayton of Corycus served as a monk. The prosperity of the inhabitants of Cyprus was brought to a halt by the harsh and corrupt Venetian administration and the iniquitous taxes they imposed. Their tyrannical rule, combined with adverse conditions ("droughts, earthquakes, epidemics, famines, floods etc."), caused a noticeable decline in the island's population. According to historian Stephen de Lusignan, by the late Venetian Era, Armenians lived mainly in Famagusta and Nicosia and, in small numbers, at three “Armenian villages”, Platani, Kornokipos and Spathariko.